She woke up to ‘We’re at war’ in Ukraine. Now Mariia Vainshtein is a New York City tennis champion

NEW YORK (AP) — Mariia Vainshtein never heard the noise and slept straight through that horrible night four years ago.

She didn’t have her phone near bed when she woke the next morning — it probably had been taken by her parents for some teenager's misbehavior, she suspects now with a laugh – so couldn’t scroll around for the news of the day. Instead, she just asked her mother when she could get a ride to school.

Anzhelika Kotliantseva knew they weren’t going anywhere in Ukraine that day. Not after she had been awake for hours, listening to the nearby explosions that began when Russia launched its invasion.

“My mom was like, ’What do you mean? We’re at war! There’s no school, no nothing!'" Vainshtein said.

Schools’ internet use spikes as students, teachers pull for Canadian — and local — athletes

Manitoba schools broke a record as students and staff tuned in to cheer on athletes — and in some cases, alumni — at the Winter Olympics.

The organization that connects the province’s 37 public school divisions to the internet saw historic spikes in activity this week.

Bandwith usage more than doubled what’s typical on a weekday for the Manitoba Education, Research and Learning Information Networks when Canadian hockey teams competed in the medal rounds in Milan Cortina.

MERLIN revealed usage spiked to 71.25 gigabits per second during the gold-medal game for women’s hockey, which Canada lost 2-1 to the U.S. in overtime, on Thursday.

Province, treaty commission develop new Grade 12 course

Manitoba’s newest Grade 12 elective investigates the meaning of the phrase: “We Are All Treaty People.”

The education department teamed up with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba to co-create a social studies curriculum.

Ahead of the winter term, the duo unveiled a new 40S credit: Land and Treaties: Relationships and Responsibilities.

“I don’t know anywhere else in Canada where this has happened,” said Connie Wyatt Anderson, treaty education lead for the commission.

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.

City library visits up 28 per cent from 2022

Visits to Winnipeg libraries have increased, but changing habits may prevent them from reaching pre-pandemic levels, new data show.

In-person visits to the city’s 20 library branches in 2025 increased 28 per cent from 2022, the first year visits began to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have yet to return to the “before” times.

There were 2.14 million visits in 2025, up from 2.08 million in 2024, but still down from 2019’s 2.4 million visits. The library’s highest year since 2012 was in 2016 when the branches saw 2.77 million visits.

During the pandemic, visits plummeted; there were only 622,000 visits in 2021 and 804,000 in 2020.

Canada’s university funding system is broken

For decades, Canadian universities have delivered a world-class education at a remarkably accessible cost. Nationally, Manitoba has among the lowest tuition fees in the country. However, like many universities across Canada, the University of Manitoba is facing a new reality that can no longer be ignored.

Full-day kindergarten returning to city’s largest school division in the fall

Manitoba’s largest school division is bringing back full day, every day kindergarten in the fall.

Four years after scaling back early years options, the Winnipeg School Division — now under new leadership — has confirmed the U-turn.

Chief superintendent Matt Henderson said he’s “not convinced” an internal study used to justify cuts in 2022 was afforded the time or energy it required to be conclusive.

The results zoned in on academics rather than holistic benefits, such as how full-time instruction builds a young student’s confidence and gives parents more flexibility to work, he said.

Building up engineers: RRC Polytech, U of M celebrate collaboration

The University of Manitoba and Red River College Polytechnic are making it easier for engineering technologists to earn a degree.

City rejects one-minute school-zone limit

The City of Winnipeg won’t try to impose a one-minute time limit for school drop-offs and pickups.

Council’s public works committee opted to take no action on the idea Wednesday, which would have directed city staff to develop a “Stop, Drop and Go” program with the strict time limit at elementary schools. The vote is final.

The committee’s chairwoman predicted the tight time limit would be tough to follow.

“I don’t think it’s feasible… I had three kids. Kicking them out in one minute is not going to happen,” said Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West).

Future students will be wired differently, thanks to AI

Teachers were urged to stop asking children what they want to be when they grow up and focus on building creative, self-directed and critical thinkers at Manitoba’s AI in Education Summit.

“How do we prepare kids for a future we can’t yet see, but we know it’s going to be radically transformed by technology?” futurist Sinead Bovell asked a crowd of educators at a first-of-its-kind conference Friday.

“That is the moment that we are in.”

The province invited Bovell, founder of tech education company WAYE, to share her predictions about artificial intelligence and related advice for schools.

Donning the vest: Young crossing guards take up safety tradition

Georgia Donachuk and the rest of her all-girls squad have given up their lunch hour for the greater good.

Equipped with flags, vests and, at this time of year, lots of layers, five girls can be found scanning the perimeter of Isaac Brock School on weekdays.

What motivates them to clock in daily for the 12:30 p.m. shift, even when it’s -25 C?

“I like keeping people safe when they cross the street,” Georgia, 10, said after shedding her CAA vest and hanging it on a hook in her school’s front lobby on a recent weekday. “Also, every time we go out, we see a cat!”

Higher school taxes a preventable problem

Tens of thousands of Manitoba home and business owners face the prospect of permanent double-digit increases to the school tax portion of their property tax bills.

Province promises ‘proactive approach’ to truancy fight

The Kinew government is drafting legislative changes to better track schoolchildren and ensure more of them attend classes regularly.

Artificial intelligence no replacement for real learning

Students in one Winnipeg school division will likely be pleased to hear they will be receiving less homework — though by the sound of things, they were not doing it anyway.

The Division scolaire franco-manitobaine shared new guidelines with teachers on Nov. 10 regarding obligatory after-school assignments.

In short, the focus will be on promoting nightly reading routines rather than assigning homework, with students from Grade 7 to 12 only moderately receiving assignments.

The reason? Student usage of artificial intelligence to complete homework assignments has become so common it is not proving to be a productive use of anyone’s time.

Teen quartet We’re Only Here for the Snacks to release debut album on limited-edition Winnipeg-inspired vinyl

The teenage instrumental indie-rock quartet will launch its debut album, Missed Our Stop, Sunday at the West End Cultural Centre.

Manitoba teenagers honour war victims during trip to Europe

A group of Manitoba teens are honouring veterans and victims of the world wars overseas as part of a new provincial program that pays for them to visit historic and commemorative sites in Europe.

Elementary students share struggles with reading after report reveals education system failing

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission published the long-awaited results of a probe into how schools are teaching children to read — or failing to do so — at the end of October.

The 70-page report represents Phase 1 of a special project that’s become known as “Manitoba’s Right to Read.” A followup on the implementation of investigators’ recommendations is expected in 2026-27.

Local investigators concluded many teachers do not have training in structured literacy, a neuroscience-backed philosophy founded on explicit instruction in phonics, which stresses recognizing the connection between sounds and letters/letter combinations.

The structured-literacy method of teaching had all but lost the so-called “reading wars” by the 2000s, amid concerns memorizing letter-sound associations was repetitive and, as a result, was destroying students’ motivation to learn. Schools pivoted to prioritizing exposing children to a wide variety of interesting and increasingly difficult texts.

Trustee suspended for third time in three years

TRANSCONA’S school board has given a veteran member his third strike in as many years, but he’s not out of a job.

Rod Giesbrecht, a longtime trustee in the River East Transcona School Division, has been suspended for three months for breaching the board’s code of conduct.

Giesbrecht was disciplined twice during the 2023-24 school year for admitting he spoke out of turn about confidential board matters.

His colleagues voted to suspend him without pay — the most severe consequence available — on Sept. 9.

Charges upgraded to attempted murder in summer sword attack

A 16-year-old male has been charged with two additional counts of attempted murder after more victims were confirmed in relation to a sword attack at a high school in June.

Winnipegger’s artwork chosen for Walmart’s national Orange Shirt offering

As she walked into the Unicity Walmart department store, Indigenous artist Brooklyn Rudolph-Nicholas felt her excitement levels rising.

She headed towards the racks of instantly recognizable orange T-shirts, smiling as she glimpsed the familiar image on the front.

It was a pinch-me moment: her work was emblazoned on Walmart Canada’s National Day for Truth & Reconciliation orange shirts stocked in stores across the country.

The granddaughter of two residential school survivors, Rudolph-Nicholas made her T-shirt art in honour of her late grandparents.