Major oil companies reap massive profits as US and Iran fighting drives energy prices higher

NEW YORK (AP) — American oil and gas giants raked in massive spring profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments and consumers around the world paid more for fuel and confronted shortages.

The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas. With global supplies constrained, prices for Brent crude, the international standard, soared from about $70 to above $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May, and at one point reached $126.

The money that oil companies accrued between the beginning of April and the end of June could receive extra scrutiny this year. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices climbed sharply during that period, increasing costs for drivers and airline passengers. Supplies ran low in some countries, leading to sporadic fuel rationing in Australia and government office closures in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Exxon Mobil on Friday reported that its second quarter profits doubled to $14.53 billion, boosted by record diesel production. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42%.

Measure twice… and try not to hurt yourself

Changing speeds. It’s a hard thing to do. A hard thing, because it’s also an admission that the speed you once had just isn’t really there anymore.

Some robotaxis approved to operate without steering wheels and losing the brake pedal could be next

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal regulators are clearing the way for robotaxis to operate without manual controls like steering wheels or eventually even brake pedals as the rules start to catch up to the evolving technology.

Amazon’s fully autonomous Zoox vehicles got approval Thursday to begin charging customers for rides in the specially designed cars that feature four inward-facing seats once they secure state and local approval. Zoox has already been offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco since last year. At least a couple people were waiting at most stops Thursday afternoon for rides up and down the Vegas strip aboard one of the distinctive boxy-shaped vehicles.

“It’s kind of scary at first, but when I just got used to it, it’s really cool and chilling. I really liked the music and how you can adjust the temperature,” Chloe Huu from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said after taking a ride in a Zoox Thursday. But the projected wait time for the ride kept changing, which made it hard to plan.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also proposed a rule last month to allow robotaxis to operate without brake pedals, but that proposal is still pending. Administrator Jonathan Morrison said his agency wants to update the regulations to fit these fully autonomous vehicles while still acting as the “cop on the beat to make sure that this is being done right.”

Shoppers flock to the frozen aisle as fresh vegetable prices soar: Loblaw

Consumers are looking for savings in the frozen vegetable aisle at Loblaw banners as prices of fresh produce have spiked in recent months.

"It's more than (five percentage points) growth in the frozen veg in our hard discount banner," Loblaw Cos. Ltd. chief executive Per Bank told analysts on a second-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Hard discount largely refers to the company's No Frills and Maxi chains.

"Those customers who shop there, they are trying to mitigate their inflation."

Affordability continues to drive buying decisions as consumers contend with high gasoline and food prices.

Between prices and a diarrhea-causing parasite, lettuce is causing hard times at some restaurants

It’s been a choppy year for restaurants that lean into lettuce.

Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to hot weather in Arizona, where about one-third of America’s lettuce is grown. Now, restaurants are dealing with the fallout from a cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans.

Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, said Thursday that Taco Bell's U.S. same-store sales are down 2% so far in the July-September period due to customers' concerns over the outbreak. That compares to a 7% same-store sales increase in the April-June period.

Federal health officials first tied the diarrhea-causing outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also affected.

Gaps in homecare leave Winnipeg man in perilous situation

Tom Landy fears he won’t live long enough to receive adequate homecare.

The 49-year-old Winnipegger has spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease, and requires 24-7 homecare, but gaps in his care leave him sitting in one spot for hours and lately he’s developed bed sores.

Landy was approved for around-the-clock care in June 2025, but staffing issues and an investigation into a homecare worker’s workplace injury have left him without help for periods of time throughout the day and forced his 76-year-old father to fill in.

“This is what they’re here for, to take care of me, and now it feels like I’m a burden,” he said from his home in the Maples.

‘Drive day and night’: TFI plans to roll out driverless trucks in U.S.

MONTREAL - Canada's biggest trucking company aims to roll out autonomous big-rigs in the United States next year, with testing slated to start within months.

TFI International Inc. is working on the project with a partner south of the border in a bid to boost reliability, safety and fuel efficiency, said chief financial officer David Saperstein.

"It can drive day and night. There's no hours of service," he told analysts on a conference call Tuesday evening.

Driverless vehicles steer clear of human factors such as fatigue, illness and poor driving, Saperstein suggested.

What to know about postpartum psychosis, which can affect a new mom’s sense of reality

A key question in a Massachusetts murder trial is whether postpartum psychosis drove a mother to kill her three children.

On Monday, a jury heard opening statements in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. Both sides agree she strangled her children aged 5 and younger in 2023. But they disagree over whether she should be held criminally responsible.

Clancy and her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, filed lawsuits accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose and treat her condition.

Here’s what to know about the disorder.

Bell rolling out new tool to detect and flag spoofed phone calls using AI

MONTREAL - Bell Canada is launching an artificial intelligence-powered feature that it says can identify and flag spoofed phone calls.

The telecommunications company says the tool will help protect customers against fraud involving caller ID spoofing, a tactic used by scammers to impersonate organizations, local businesses or personal contacts.

Steve Karan, Bell's vice-president of wireless products and logistics, says this adds "another powerful layer of protection" to keep Canadians safe as phone fraud grows more sophisticated.

It builds on Bell's suspicious call detection feature launched last year, which uses artificial intelligence analytics to monitor incoming calls in real time and alert customers to potential spam or fraud.

Cultural consultation gives Indigenous stories strength in Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie

Through her work as an Indigenous consultant for film and TV, Julie O’Keefe, a citizen of the Osage Nation, has brought accuracy and authenticity to works such as Martin Scorsese’s 2023 crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, the 2025 western miniseries American Primeval and, most recently, Rebecca Sonnenshine’s new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie.

But she doesn’t work solo.

“One of the things that I always say is, in any of these jobs that I do — whether it’s Shoshone and Paiute and Ute or Osage — I never come alone to this,” says O’Keefe, who grew up in Pawhuska, Okla., the heart of the Osage Nation, and is now based in Santa Fe, N.M. “I engage because those stories are so much richer with our voices added to it, and we know that.

“I’m sitting down with brilliant directors, brilliant writers, and I’m handing over pieces of history that they’re like, ‘How come nobody knows this?’ And the great part is, this is the time in history … people are really starting to get on top of wanting this for their stories, because it really wasn’t of any importance before.”

City has plenty of frozen dessert oases to discover

No matter the weather, ice cream is always a welcome addition to the day.

It’s a rite of passage as, at the slightest hint of a thaw, Winnipeggers descend in droves, heeding the siren call of institutions such as Sargent Sundae (2053 Portage Ave.) and Bridge Drive-In (766 Jubilee Ave. and 1680 Main St.) that slide open their shutters any time from late March to early April, ready to welcome dedicated connoisseurs seeking their first taste of the season.

We’re blessed with an abundance of ice-cream joints in this city, ranging from brick-and-mortar storefronts to mobile carts and pop-up stalls, all serving generous scoops of childhood faves alongside rather more innovative flavours.

With so many dairy bars and frozen dessert parlours dotted around, there’s no need to choose just one spot to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Manitoba Hydro’s energy plan set to be scrutinized

Manitoba Hydro is set to face questions and concerns over its plan for the province’s future energy needs, which includes proposed natural gas-powered turbines in Brandon and Indigenous-owned wind farms.

The Public Utilities Board, an arm’s-length regulator, will begin six weeks of hearings Monday into the 10-year blueprint and potential ways to satisfy electricity demand, while Hydro grapples with a projected energy shortfall, debt of $25 billion and aging infrastructure.

“The development plan reflects the best available information and analysis of how Manitoba Hydro can meet growing energy demand, while balancing factors we know are important to our customers, including cost, reliability and the environment,” Peter Chura, a spokesman for the Crown corporation, told the Free Press.

“We are confident in our analysis and that we’ve appropriately balanced reliability, affordability, safety and risk.”

Gordie Howe bridge opens to cars after months of cross-border controversy

The Gordie Howe International Bridge opened to motorists Monday after months of controversy over financial aspects of the project.

Officials announced in a post on social media just after noon that the Howe family had crossed first, in honour of the bridge's Canadian-American hockey namesake.

Minutes later, another post marked the crossing of the first commercial truck, a vehicle from a trucking company in Tecumseh, Ont., that was carrying auto parts to Michigan.

As the sunny afternoon went on, cars and transport trucks brought a stream of inaugural crossings.

An eroding Winnipeg neighbourhood looks to new foundations

The lot Jesse Bettcher lives on in Winnipeg's North End used to be a pile of burnt rubble. Same with the one next door. And the one across the street. But he's now the proud owner of a two-storey house with blue-grey siding and white trim.

‘Bright’ future: RCAF chief says spike in defence spending is boosting flight times

OTTAWA - One year into her new job as commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet said she could see an immediate effect of the federal government's defence spending boost: RCAF pilots are spending more time in the air.

In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Speiser-Blanchet also acknowledged that preparing the entire service for what she described as a rapid and "giant transformation" — rebuilding the whole plane while it's flying, so to speak — sometimes gives her pause.

"It's that pace of change sometimes that worries me a little," she said.

She said while she’s "very comfortable" with the decisions made preparing for modernization, it's "the thought that there's something we should be doing now to make sure that we're set up for success in the future and that we're missing it" that keeps her up at night.

Automation reaches new heights on farm

LANGHAM, Sask. — The thousands of farmers from across the Prairies who flock to the annual Ag in Motion show every July seem oblivious to the possibility the technology on display could one day replace many of them.

Families with children in tow, Hutterite colony workers, grandparents and young couples just starting out roamed through the 600 or more exhibitor displays, amazed at how everything about farming just keeps getting bigger, more efficient and increasingly more automated.

It’s now possible to seed using a 100-foot-wide drill — a 12-foot jump over the widest available a few years ago — provided the farmer can afford a tractor with enough horsepower to pull it. Those sell for around $850,000 and up.

Granted, the number of farms with enough acres to justify that kind of width and drawing power is still relatively small, but farms continue to grow. And it’s no secret the number of people who have the interest, skills and financial wherewithal to run them continues to shrink.

Banks seek to implement AI tools for customers … who love them until they don’t work

Few consumer-facing industries illustrate the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence more than the financial services sector.

Generative AI — the technology powering chatbots that can seemingly think and provide reasonably correct, if not insightful, answers to our questions — is arguably a wonder of the modern world.

The potential for providing financial advice is indeed palpable. Then again, it’s not hard to imagine the technology running amok especially with people’s money.

A recent report on digital banking services provides insight on the risks and opportunities.

Creating a home in Highland Pointe that will be a joy to live in every day

As important a role as imagination plays in the design of a new home, it isn’t advisable to get carried away.

When that happens, a home’s design can quickly go from inspired to impractical.

With that in mind, Spencer Curtis and his design team at Hilton Homes reined in their desire to go all-out in creating a home that was filled with a host of unique design features.

“This is a cool home, but not so cool that it loses its function,” says Curtis, the company’s owner/designer.

Great workplace shorts debate: time to free knees

We’ve reached the point where employers need to reconsider what “professional appearance” means. Spoiler alert: it has very little to do with the amount of fabric covering your shins.

‘Existential’: Community papers struggling to survive amid Canada Post flyer delivery

MONTREAL - Community newspaper owners claim Canada Post is helping to drive some of them out of business thanks to an expanded partnership it forged with the country's largest printing firm.

Last month, the Crown corporation launched the countrywide rollout of a joint venture with Transcontinental Inc. known as Raddar, which saw Canada Post start delivering discount-deal leaflets in all 10 provinces.

Community newspapers have traditionally relied on flyer bundles to fund their publications, which are delivered free to millions of readers in urban and rural communities.

Paul Deegan, CEO of News Media Canada, which represents scores of community papers among the 550 news titles it advocates for, says those outlets are now losing ad clients after being undercut by a government-backed enterprise. The revenue loss threatens to shutter news outlets and leave residents less informed about their communities, he said.

A foodborne parasite and government efficiency

Week-long explosive diarrhea. There. Now that we’ve got your attention, here’s a cautionary tale about red-tape reduction and public health.

Winnipeg-developed new app Hostly seeks to bring community together

Stephen Hua enjoys making connections.

“That’s my calling or my passion here, so to speak: to find ways to bring people together and plan events,” he said.

Over the last 25 years, Hua has pursued that passion as a live events promoter and restaurateur in Winnipeg. He’s the founder of the annual electronic music festival Summer of Sound, he’s organized local concerts by major musical acts such as Drake and Lady Gaga, and he co-owns Commonwealth Kitchen and Bar on Main Street.

Now, Hua is helping people make connections via a new app.

OpenAI says its AI technology acted on its own in an ‘unprecedented’ hack of another company

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Tuesday that its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company on its own in what the company called an “unprecedented cyber incident.”

“We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement posted on social media.

AI startup Hugging Face said last week that it had detected an intrusion into its data processing systems that it suspected was caused by an AI agent autonomously acting on its own.

“We suspected last week’s cyberattack might have come from a frontier lab, given the sophistication of the agent,” Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue said in a statement. "Turns out it did!”

Wreckage found of Pan Am plane crash that helped lead to today’s safety briefings on every flight

Searchers have found the wreckage from a Pan Am flight that plunged into the ocean off Puerto Rico in 1952, an accident that killed 52 and led to requirements for the passenger safety briefings given on every commercial flight.

The plane, the Clipper Endeavor, made a hard landing after losing engine power shortly after takeoff. The 17 passengers and crew who survived told investigators everyone lived through the landing, but panic set in as many passengers struggled to find life vests and the crew had a hard time pulling out life rafts.

Within minutes, the plane sank. Explorers found the wreckage of the DC-4 last month by using an autonomous sonar drone to locate the fuselage and tail in 2,000 feet of water.

Now before takeoff, flight attendants instruct passengers about exit locations and where life vests are located and how to inflate them.