Two-thirds of Manitobans using AI, but a lot aren’t happy about it, survey reveals

Manitobans admit they rely on artificial intelligence for daily activities, but are troubled by the emerging technology’s impact on the environment, job security and beyond.

‘Uncover what’s really going on’: UFO researcher in Manitoba supports AI tracking

WINNIPEG - Artificial intelligence is going to make it easier to spot whether a bird, a plane or an otherworldly creature is in the sky, as Canadians continue to report sightings of unidentified flying objects, says Canada's top UFO expert.

Chris Rutkowski has spent decades researching the phenomenon and is part of Ufology Research, a Manitoba-based organization that tracks UFO sightings in Canada and publishes an annual report.

The group's 2025 analysis, released Monday, includes data taken from observation stations set up by passionate UFO enthusiasts across the country.

"They're gathering scientific data above and beyond just the average person seeing something in the night sky. This is an attempt to quantify UFO sightings," said Rutkowski.

RWB presents reimagined version of Tchaikovsky classic The Sleeping Beauty

The classics tend to be the classics for a reason, and The Sleeping Beauty, the classical fairy-tale ballet choreographed by French-Russian master Marius Petipa to Tchaikovsky’s masterwork score, is no exception.

But that doesn’t mean they have to be done the way they’ve always been done.

The version the Royal Winnipeg Ballet will perform at the Centennial Concert Hall this week is an adaptation by the company’s new artistic director, Christopher Stowell, which was created for the Oregon Theatre Ballet in 2010 and is now part of three other companies’ repertoires.

“Part of my mission, I think, in keeping this art form that I love relevant, alive and on people’s minds and appealing to people, is to take a work that has been part of the repertoire for a long time, like Sleeping Beauty,” he says. “It’s 100-and-something years old, and I love it, and I value it, and it has an important place in our history.

Volunteering at aviation museum sparks love of learning, sharing knowledge for former Air Force pilot

Gary Hook was a fighter pilot, commanding officer and senior flight instructor during his 43-year career in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Hook, 72, piloted more than 15 types of aircraft across Canada and Europe.

These days, the aviation buff volunteers as a tour guide and gallery interpreter at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, at 2088 Wellington Ave.

“There’s no shortage of good stories to tell about the aircraft, the people and the eras of aviation they flew in,” Hook says.

Transfer program adds to Manitoba First Nation’s bison population

The herd of bison that calls Chitek Lake Anishinaabe Provincial Park in Manitoba home just grew a little larger.

Une 5e édition, et une incorporation pour Noir et Fier

Lors du gala de clôture de Noir et Fier, tenu le 26 février au Musée canadien pour les droits de la personne (MCDP), le festival conclut le mois de février avec l’annonce d’une incorporation. L’organisation franchit donc une étape structurante importante en devenant un organisme à but non lucratif à part entière.

“Le bilan que je fais de cette cinquième édition est très positif.”

En cinq ans, Noir et Fier est passé d’une exposition de portraits pour le mois de l’histoire des Noirs, à un festival qui occupe désormais tout au long de février et qui franchit aujourd’hui une nouvelle étape avec son incorporation.

“Chacune des activités a rassemblé beaucoup de personnes. Ça a été des moments de discussion très intenses, de très bons moments d’échange, de partage, de sensibilisation et d’éducation. Nos statistiques sont assez frappantes,” assure Wilgis Agossa, directeur artistique et fondateur de Noir et Fier.

What to know: Downtown Anchorage braces for a canine takeover as the Iditarod’s 54th run begins

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Hundreds of barking dogs took over downtown Anchorage as the ceremonial start of the world’s most famous sled dog race got underway Saturday. As snow fell, fans lined up near the starting line in frigid, 19 degree F (minus 7.2 degree C) weather to see and cheer their favorite mushers. The competitive start to the race begins Sunday.

Here’s what to know about the 54th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which features a new amateur category and financial support from a Norwegian billionaire.

What is the Iditarod?

The Iditarod was conceived by co-founders Dorothy Page and Joe Redington Sr. as a long-distance sled dog race to honor both Alaska’s mushing tradition and the Iditarod Trail. That was a 938-mile (1,510-kilometer) freight and mail route that ran from Seward on Alaska’s southern coast to Nome, on the Bering Sea on Alaska’s western coast.

Five examples of representation in recognition of International Women’s Day

To mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, the Free Press is spotlighting five Manitobans doing impactful work in sports.

Alyssa White — para hockey athleteWhite was 14 when she made the Canadian women’s para hockey squad.

“It’s kind of wild still to me to think about because I had only started playing hockey a year prior to that,” said the now 20-year-old.

Spacecraft’s impact changed asteroid’s orbit around the sun in a save-the-Earth test, study finds

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid that NASA used for target practice a few years ago was nudged into a slightly different route around the sun, findings that could help divert a future incoming killer space rock, scientists reported Friday.

It’s the first time that a celestial body’s orbit around the sun was deliberately changed. The asteroid that NASA's Dart spacecraft slammed into was never a threat to Earth.

“This study marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth,” the international research team wrote in Science Advances.

The changes were slight — reductions of just one-tenth of a second and one-half of a mile (720 meters) to a solar lap spanning two years and hundreds of millions of miles (kilometers), according to the scientists.

Spin Master sees loss, lower revenue in holiday quarter

TORONTO - Spin Master Corp.'s busiest time of year left the business with some holiday blues — a US$184.3 million loss.

The Toronto-based toy maker behind the Paw Patrol, Hatchimals and Melissa & Doug brands announced the fourth-quarter result Thursday, saying it compared with a profit of US$21.1 million or 20 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.

The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, blamed the loss on a US$229.1-million non-cash impairment of goodwill and intangible assets and said it came as Spin Master capped "a challenging year for our U.S. toy sales."

"We navigated a difficult tariff macro environment and while we achieved many of our goals, our results did not meet our expectations we set at the beginning of the year," conceded CEO Cristina Miller on a call with analysts.

Google settles with Epic Games with offer to lower its app store commissions

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google will lower the lucrative fees imposed on its Android app store and offer a way for rival options to gain its stamp of approval, ending a bruising legal battle that led to one of several rulings condemning its tactics as an illegal monopoly.

The proposed changes filed Wednesday with a federal court in San Francisco mark the latest twist in a case that began in August 2020 when video game maker Epic Games filed an antitrust case seeking to make it easier for alternative payment options to compete against Google's Play Store system, which charges 15% to 30% commissions on a wide variety of in-app transactions.

Google's concessions come five months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the company's attempt to overturn a federal judge's order requiring a far more extensive overhaul of the Play Store following a 2023 trial that culminated in a jury declaring the setup an illegal monopoly.

Backed into a legal corner, Google is now prepared to decrease its baseline commissions for subscriptions and e-commerce transactions into the 10% to 20% range. It's also offering an optional 5% payment processing charge that would be applied in addition to the other service fees for apps that prefer to keep everything within the Play Store.

Ice-cold meeting has a warm, happy ending for firefighter and her new roommate

A firefighter’s chance meeting with some cold, lost dogs Sunday night is a story that ends on a heartwarming note.

A crew headed back to the downtown fire station on Ellen Street after a call spotted the canine quartet and stopped to investigate.

Nick Kasper, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, said the dogs got spooked and ran away. The firefighters were able to coax them out from behind a dumpster.

“They were very skittish and very afraid… but the guys used an old trick in the playbook,” Kasper said Tuesday. “Some of our guys carry around dog treats in their travel gear. They encounter dogs quite often on calls so it helps make friends early. They plied them with some dog treats and quickly became friends on the street.

High-tech snowplows and AI help cities clean up from big storms

Residents of Syracuse, New York — America’s snowiest city — once barraged a service hotline with street neglect complaints during blizzards, even if plows had passed two hours earlier but the work was hidden by fresh snow.

Now public trust seems to be rising as Syracuse and other cities across the U.S. integrate upgrades such as video monitoring, GPS mapping and artificial intelligence into snow operations that once relied almost entirely on manual planning.

Syracuse was one of the first to revamp the way it deploys its snowplows, and complaint calls have dropped by 30% under the new system, said Conor Muldoon, the city’s chief innovation officer.

“People will look out their window and say, ‘Hey, you guys are doing a terrible job,’” Muldoon said. “And we can point to a public map and say, ‘Here’s all the breadcrumbs for when that plow was there.’”

Last spring forward for B.C. as it moves to permanent daylight time

VICTORIA - British Columbia's southern population centres will be facing winter sunrises around 9 a.m. — and around 9:30 a.m. in the north — after the decision to adopt year-round daylight time, springing forward by one hour this Sunday for the last time.

Premier David Eby said Monday the decision is about making life easier for families, reducing disruptions for businesses and supporting a stable, thriving economy.

"British Columbians have been clear that seasonal time changes do not work for them,” Eby said.

He announced the change inside the legislature's Hall of Honour, surrounded by about 40 local elementary schoolchildren, and he addressed them first.

End the ban: France backs return of intellectually disabled athletes to Winter Paralympics

LANS-EN-VERCORS, France (AP) — On a well-groomed, snow-covered slope in the Montagnes de Lans ski area near the French city of Grenoble, a group of Alpine skiers take aggressive lines through the gates. Their trajectories are precise, the tempo is fast and the technique polished.

Among this competition squad are world champions — some with multiple medals to their names.

Yet none will line up in the starting gates at the Milan Cortina Paralympic Games, where more than 650 athletes will compete in 79 medal events from March 6.

The reason? They have cognitive disabilities and are not eligible to compete.

Retired nurse doesn’t mind doing laundry to help raise money for Children’s Hospital Foundation

Donna Askew has been doing other people’s laundry for more than 20 years, but she doesn’t mind. It’s all for a good cause.

It’s fair to say Askew has washed, dried, mended and hung up thousands of shirts, blouses, dresses, T-shirts and trousers during her tenure as volunteer laundress at the Nearly New Shop at 961 Portage Ave.

“You name it, I’ve washed it… underwear and socks and lots of bedding and tablecloths and runners… if you’ve washed it at home in your washer, I’ve washed it in mine,” she says, laughing.

The shop attracts more than 50 customers daily, many who have come to rely on it.

Drumming program connects Southeast Asian students with traditional instrument, heritage

For many young musicians at Arthur E. Wright School, tabla class begins with a bow and tapping their music teacher’s toes.

Amjad Sabir isn’t all that fussy about formalities, but he recognizes his students’ families have taught them these gestures are important to show respect towards their Indo-Canadian elders.

“I just want to spread this art,” said Sabir, who is affectionately known as “guruji” — meaning esteemed teacher in Hindi and Punjabi — inside the kindergarten-to-Grade 8 building in the Maples.

The art in question? A pair of hand drums, known as tabla, that create a wide range of tones.

Infrequent lunar eclipse performs Copper Side of the Moon early Tuesday morning

Stargazers in Manitoba have the chance Tuesday to watch the last total lunar eclipse on this side of the world until 2029.

Chief says more funding needed to repair homes after power outage, flooding

A northern First Nation hit by a days-long power outage and subsequent water crisis is seeking additional government funds to cover the cost of mould and asbestos removal in homes.

Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias said Friday there is a shortage of funding to remediate the hazards and bring homes with damage up to code so they are habitable.

“We can’t have (residents) return to a situation where there might be some bacteria or moulding issues that will affect their safety, that affect their health, and possibly cause medical issues that will be made worse because they already have existing health issues,” he said during a virtual call.

Pimicikamak’s leaders said an estimated 1,300 homes were damaged after pipes froze and burst two months ago. Water leaked into basements and crawl spaces. The community’s water and sewage plants were also affected.