Why Winnipeg needs low-fare transit

Picture a single mother choosing between groceries and bus fare, or a youth not being able to access recreational activities because transit is too expensive. In a city where costs continue to rise, access to public transit shouldn’t be a luxury, but a daily necessity for survival.

Amazon’s Zoox launches its robotaxi service in Las Vegas

Amazon's Zoox on Wednesday launched its robotaxi service in Las Vegas, offering free rides through parts of the entertainment mecca for anyone willing to gamble on the safety of a driverless vehicle that operates without a steering wheel.

The Las Vegas debut of Zoox's long-planned ride-hailing service reflects Amazon-owned robotaxi maker's confidence in the safety of its boxy vehicles after two years of testing them in the city.

The robotaxis initially were only available to employees in Las Vegas before gradually expanding to friends and family members. Now, anyone with the Zoox app will be able to request a ride to five designated locations, including Resorts World, the Luxor hotel and the New York-New York hotel. The longest distance the Zoox robotaxis will travel is about three miles (4.8 kilometers) while carrying up to four passengers.

All rides will be provided for free for at least the first few months to help promote the existence of the service in the perennially popular travel destination. Once it begins charging for rides in Las Vegas, Zoox says its prices will be comparable to traditional taxis and ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

Nepal internet crackdown part of global trend toward suppressing online freedom

Nepal's crackdown on social media companies, which led to protests and police killing at least 19 people, is part of a yearslong decline of internet freedoms around the world as even democracies seek to curtail online speech.

The Himalayan country’s government said last week it was blocking several social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with a requirement that they register with the government. The ban was lifted Tuesday a day after the deadly protests.

What's happening in Nepal mirrors “this broader pattern of controlling the narrative and controlling of stories emerging from the ground,” said Aditya Vashistha, an assistant professor of information science at Cornell University. “This has happened several times in the neighboring countries India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. So this is nothing new — in fact, I would say this is taken from the playbook, which is now very established, of trying to control social media narratives.”

Not just Nepal

Protests against Nepal’s social-media ban grow more violent as demonstrators set buildings on fire

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Protests against Nepal’s short-lived ban on social media grew increasingly violent Tuesday as demonstrators set government buildings and politicians’ homes on fire and attacked some leaders. The prime minister resigned amid widening criticism of the country’s political elite.

The resignation appeared to have little effect on the unrest. Tens of thousands of protesters remained on the streets late in the day, blocking roads and storming government facilities. Army helicopters ferried some ministers to safe places.

A day earlier, demonstrations led by young people angry about the blocking of several social media sites gripped the capital, and police opened fire on the crowds, killing 19 people.

The ban was lifted Tuesday, but the protests continued, fueled by rage over the deaths and accusations of political corruption in the nation wedged between China and India.

400+ brands in 5+ years: Winnipeg-based digital marketing firm Mad Social Agency continues to evolve

Maddie Thompson was on a beach when she decided to drop out of school.

It was February 2022 and she was studying architecture at the University of Manitoba. While maintaining her spot on the dean’s honour list, Thompson was also running Mad Social Agency Ltd., the digital marketing firm she’d started two years earlier. She had enough business by that point she was hiring friends to help manage accounts.

Sitting on Locarno Beach in Vancouver, she realized it made sense to drop out and pursue the business full-time.

“My thought process was: I’m going to take a one-year leave of absence and see if I can make this work,” says Thompson, 23. “And I just never went back.”

Onslaught of sports betting ads make gambling seem enticing to youth, doctors say

TORONTO - Doctors are calling for restrictions on sports betting ads, saying they are setting youth up for a future of problem gambling.

An editorial published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday says the ads are everywhere during sports broadcasts and that the legalization of online gambling has made every smartphone a potential betting platform.

Editor Dr. Shannon Charlebois says even though betting sites say they're only for people 19 years of age and older, youth are being inundated with advertising that equates enjoying sports with betting.

She says child and teen brains are still developing and the constant exposure to gambling messages normalizes harmful behaviour that they can carry into adulthood

Alberta bans sexual images in school library books under revised order

EDMONTON - The Alberta government made good Monday on its promise to revise its school book ban, stating that from now on written descriptions of sex are OK, but images and illustrations of sex are not.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told reporters that visual depictions had been the government's main concern from the start.

When asked by reporters why the government wasn't concerned with written descriptions of explicit sexual material, he said, “An image can be understood and conveyed at any grade level with any degree of comprehension.

“Whereas, of course, vocabulary and understanding progresses and develops throughout the school year."

ChatGPT — get away from my em dash

ChatGPT is ruining my life, and I don’t even use it.

Winnipeg independent music magazine Stylus set to fold

The future of Stylus Magazine, Winnipeg’s flagship indie music publication, is in jeopardy.

Offhand insult in 2003 gave rise to the Banjo Bowl — one of CFL's most-colourful and enduring rivalries

It was the verbal shot heard ’round the world. Or at least, across a pair of Prairie provinces.

Canadian Football League fans in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are well familiar with the origin of the Banjo Bowl, the annual tilt that pits the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers against their principal rival, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Followers of both teams can tell you that the match evolved out of a comment uttered by former Bombers placekicker Troy Westwood in September 2003, when he sarcastically referred to Saskatchewaners (Saskatchewanites? Saskatchewians?) as “banjo-picking inbreds.”

Then, how he doubled down on that jibe a few weeks later when, at a scheduled news conference, he told members of the media that he had misspoken, as “the vast majority of the people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo.” (For the record, Westwood’s mom was born in the Land of the Living Skies, and his aunts and grandmother were living there when he was spouting off.)

Ryan Reynolds suggests swapping phones with a MAGA supporter, checking out their algorithm

TORONTO - Ryan Reynolds says mounting tensions between Canada and the U.S. haven't changed anything for him as a Canuck in Hollywood.

The "Deadpool" star preached unity during an onstage conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, when chief programming officer Anita Lee asked him what it was like being a Canadian in Los Angeles during this "elbows up" era of increased nationalism.

In a nearly five-minute answer to the question, Reynolds said he's always held Canadian values, including conflict resolution, and he seeks "to learn, rather than win."

Reynolds is at TIFF to promote the new documentary "John Candy: I Like Me," which he produced.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Margaret Atwood takes aim at Alberta’s school library books ban with satirical story

EDMONTON - Margaret Atwood is taking aim at Alberta's controversial ban on school library books containing sexual content with a new, satirical short story after the famed author's novel "The Handmaid's Tale" was yanked from some shelves due to the province's sweeping new rules.

In a social media post on Sunday, Atwood said since the literary classic is no longer suitable in Alberta's schools, she has written a short story for 17-year-olds about two "very, very good children" named John and Mary.

"They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits," she said at the beginning of her story.

"They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex."

Increasing restrictions could silence culture critics

It’s getting harder to see where reviews and other forms of cultural criticism fit in the current media ecosystem. Arts writing positions are being axed at outlets all over North America — but a landscape of all influencers and no critics means all promotion and no journalism.