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Jan Beddoe, left, is shown in this undated handout photo with her son Chris, who was

Mother says son was ‘savagely bitten’ at Toronto-area group home amid staff strike

Cassidy McMackon, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Yesterday at 10:53 AM CST

TORONTO - The mother of a man living in a Toronto-area group home at the centre of a bitter labour dispute says she is seeking accountability after he was "savagely bitten" on the neck by another resident.

Jan Beddoe says she was "absolutely furious" after the Dec. 23 attack on her 47-year-old son Chris at the home run by Central West Specialized Developmental Services. It's a provincially funded supportive living community for adults with developmental disabilities, with satellite locations in Burlington, Halton Hills, Mississauga and Oakville.

The bite happened more than two months after about 40 residents were moved into the care home's main facility near downtown Oakville to ensure there would be enough staff to provide round-the-clock care in anticipation of a strike by support staff.

The workers represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union walked off the job in mid-November, about 40 days after CWSDS requested a no-board report from Ontario's Ministry of Labour. Since then, third-party agency staff have been working in the main Oakville facility to support residents.

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How the White House and governors want to fix AI-driven power shortages and price spikes

Michelle L. Price, Marc Levy And Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

How the White House and governors want to fix AI-driven power shortages and price spikes

Michelle L. Price, Marc Levy And Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 11:05 PM CST

The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the operator of the mid-Atlantic power grid to take urgent steps to boost energy supply and curb price hikes, holding a Friday event aimed at addressing a rising concern among voters about the enormous amount of power used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections later this year.

The White House said its National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, want to try to compel PJM Interconnection to hold a power auction for tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants,

The Trump administration and governors will sign a statement of principles toward that end Friday. The plan was first reported by Bloomberg.

“Ensuring the American people have reliable and affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities, and this would deliver much-needed, long-term relief to the mid-Atlantic region," said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman.

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Yesterday at 11:05 PM CST

Meta's Stanton Springs Data Center is seen Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Newton County, East of Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Social media platforms removed 4.7 million accounts after Australia banned them for children

Charlotte Graham-mclay, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Social media platforms removed 4.7 million accounts after Australia banned them for children

Charlotte Graham-mclay, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 1:27 AM CST

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said.

“We stared down everybody who said it couldn’t be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters,” communications minister Anika Wells told reporters on Friday. “Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back.”

The figures, reported to Australia’s government by 10 social media platforms, were the first to show the scale of the landmark ban since it was enacted in December over fears about the effects of harmful online environments on young people. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures.

Officials said the figure was encouraging

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Updated: 1:27 AM CST

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, and Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells speak to the media during a visit to St John Paul II College in Canberra, Australia, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)

CDC studies show value of nationwide wastewater disease surveillance, as potential funding cut looms

Devi Shastri, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

CDC studies show value of nationwide wastewater disease surveillance, as potential funding cut looms

Devi Shastri, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 4:36 PM CST

Wastewater testing can alert public health officials to measles infections days to months before cases are confirmed by doctors, researchers said in two studies published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Colorado health officials were able to get ahead of the highly contagious virus by tracking its presence in sewer systems, researchers wrote. And Oregon researchers found wastewater could have warned them of an outbreak more than two months before the first person tested positive.

The findings add to evidence that wastewater testing is a valuable weapon in tracking disease, including COVID-19, polio, mpox and bird flu.

But the national wastewater surveillance system, run by CDC since 2020, is newly at risk, under a Trump administration budget plan would slash its funding from about $125 million a year to about $25 million.

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Yesterday at 4:36 PM CST

FILE - A sign is seen outside a clinic with the South Plains Public Health District, Feb. 23, 2025, in Brownfield, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Confusion erupts in mental health and substance abuse programs as HHS cuts, then reinstates grants

Ali Swenson, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Confusion erupts in mental health and substance abuse programs as HHS cuts, then reinstates grants

Ali Swenson, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 3:41 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth Woike was cautiously optimistic when she saw news reports that the nearly $2 billion in grants that the Trump administration pulled from substance abuse and mental health programs around the country the previous day might be getting reinstated.

Then she got a 2 a.m. email Thursday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reiterating the cuts — and didn't know what to think anymore.

“I just shook my head. It's mass chaos,” said Woike, the CEO of BestSelf Behavioral Health, a mental health and substance use disorder treatment provider in Buffalo, New York. As it turned out, the second termination letter was sent in error. She and roughly 2,000 other grant recipients nationwide were notified later Thursday morning that their federal funding had indeed been restored.

Woike's feeling of whiplash over the past two days has been a common experience for providers, state health agencies and Americans who receive services amid the Trump administration eliminating, then abruptly reinstating, grants that support some of the nation's most vulnerable people.

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Yesterday at 3:41 PM CST

FILE - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building is seen, April 5, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

At Detroit auto show, spotlight dims for EVs

Alexa St. John, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

At Detroit auto show, spotlight dims for EVs

Alexa St. John, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 2:59 PM CST

DETROIT (AP) — At the North American International Auto Show, tires squeal as gearheads put shiny new vehicles through their paces on a pair of indoor tracks that sprawl across the event space. One of those tracks used to be set aside exclusively for electric vehicles as U.S. automakers sought to quickly build out the cars of the future.

But no longer. This year, both strips are open to hybrids and gas-powered vehicles as Detroit continues a pivot away from EVs since President Donald Trump returned to the White House with a pro-fossil fuels agenda.

“The show will always reflect what’s happening in the industry at the consumer level,” said Todd Szott, chairman of this year’s event and an auto dealer. “Obviously things have changed in the EV landscape.”

Some industry players say they're emphasizing “consumer choice” in the cars they're showing at Detroit's premier auto event. But some experts expressed concern about the EV pullback's long-term effect on American automakers as the rest of the globe — especially China — electrifies.

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Updated: Yesterday at 2:59 PM CST

A worker dusts on a 2026 Cadillac Optiq Premium Sport vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

N.S. government says even more cannabis dispensaries than originally estimated

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

N.S. government says even more cannabis dispensaries than originally estimated

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:26 PM CST

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's justice minister says there are more illegal cannabis dispensaries in the province than the 118 the government had initially estimated — though he won't say how many.

The real number is in flux, Scott Armstrong told reporters Thursday following a cabinet meeting. His vague comments are the latest in the series of confusing statements government members have made over the past few weeks to defend their crackdown on illegal cannabis shops.

"I'm not going to give you a number .... But I can tell you it is bigger than the first number we released," Armstrong said, adding that new illegal shops have opened since he issued a directive on Dec. 4 for Nova Scotia police to prioritize cannabis enforcement. On that day he also wrote to 13 Mi’kmaq chiefs requesting their co-operation as police tackle what he called a growing public safety problem.

That directive, however, has led to criticism from First Nations communities that the government may be interfering with law enforcement to target Indigenous Peoples.

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:26 PM CST

Miguel Laboy rolls a joint Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Brookline, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Ontario man accused of assaulting someone for ice fishing too close, police say

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

Ontario man accused of assaulting someone for ice fishing too close, police say

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 1:33 PM CST

SELWYN TOWNSHIP - Ontario Provincial Police say a 72-year-old man has been charged with assault after he allegedly attacked someone for ice fishing too close to him.

OPP say officers were called to Chemong Lake near Peterborough on Wednesday afternoon for a report of someone being assaulted while ice fishing.

They say the complainant said the suspect approached them in an aggressive manner while they were fishing.

The suspect said the person was fishing too close before allegedly assaulting them.

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Yesterday at 1:33 PM CST

An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) patch is seen in Ottawa, on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

NYC nurses on strike resume negotiations with hospitals on 4th day

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

NYC nurses on strike resume negotiations with hospitals on 4th day

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:42 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City nurses on strike resumed negotiations with hospital administrators Thursday to try to bring an end to the city's biggest walkout of its kind in decades.

The New York State Nurses Association said its bargaining members began meeting with their counterparts at NewYork-Presbyterian late Thursday, the fourth day of the strike.

They also plan to sit down with officials at other affected hospitals, including those operated by Mount Sinai and Montefiore, on Friday, though the union said some facilities have not yet agreed to resume talks.

Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently, and not every hospital run by the three health care systems is affected by the strike.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:42 PM CST

Striking nurses demonstrate outside Mt. Sinai Morningside Hospital, in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

What to know about UK legal changes aiming to regulate AI-generated nude images

Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

What to know about UK legal changes aiming to regulate AI-generated nude images

Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 12:15 PM CST

LONDON (AP) — Laws that will make it illegal to create online sexual images of someone without their consent are coming into force soon in the U.K., officials said Thursday, following a global backlash over the use of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to make sexualized deepfakes of women and children.

Musk's company, xAI, announced late Wednesday that it has introduced measures to prevent Grok from allowing the editing of photos of real people to portray them in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the move, and said X must “immediately” ensure full compliance with U.K. law. He stressed that his government will remain vigilant on any transgressions by Grok and its users.

“Free speech is not the freedom to violate consent," Starmer said Thursday. “I am glad that action has now been taken. But we’re not going to let this go. We will continue because this is a values argument.”

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Yesterday at 12:15 PM CST

What you need to know about Grok and the controversies surrounding it

The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

What you need to know about Grok and the controversies surrounding it

The Associated Press 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:25 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk's Grok keeps getting into trouble, and this time, more of the world's governments are trying to intervene.

First launched in 2023, Grok is Musk’s attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in building an AI assistant powered by a large language model, which is trained on vast pools of data to help predict the most plausible next word in a sentence. It's the main product of Musk's AI startup, xAI, which has been merged with his social media platform, X. Much like ChatGPT and Gemini, Musk's company has also folded AI image generation capabilities into the chatbot.

Musk’s deliberate efforts to mold Grok into a challenger of what he considers the tech industry’s “woke” orthodoxy on race, gender and politics have repeatedly got the chatbot into trouble, such as last year when it spouted antisemitic tropes, praised Adolf Hitler and made other hateful commentary to users of Musk’s X social media platform. The chatbot was also found last year to be echoing the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it would sometimes search online for Musk’s stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.

Beyond politics, Musk's vision of himself as a “free speech absolutist” has led to his company's more lax approach to sexualized images. Other mainstream chatbots block the creation of pornographic images. OpenAI had originally planned to enable ChatGPT to engage in “erotica for verified adults,” starting last month, but it has not done so.

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:25 PM CST

FILE - Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

CRTC launches study to help Canadians find information about cellphone coverage gaps

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

CRTC launches study to help Canadians find information about cellphone coverage gaps

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 11:34 AM CST

GATINEAU - Canada's telecommunications regulator is launching another consultation aimed at empowering cellphone and internet customers, with the aim of improving how information about mobile network coverage is reported.

The CRTC says it wants to develop a standardized method for cellphone coverage reporting, noting public opinion research shows that many customers still find there are significant gaps in coverage where cellphone service is unavailable.

The commission says this will help service providers, governments, public safety organizations and Canadians better identify where coverage is strong and where improvements are needed.

It is accepting public feedback until March 16, with Canadians able to submit comments online, by letter or fax.

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Yesterday at 11:34 AM CST

A public hearing of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, in Gatineau, Que., on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Kaiser affiliates will pay $556M to settle a lawsuit alleging Medicare fraud

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Kaiser affiliates will pay $556M to settle a lawsuit alleging Medicare fraud

The Associated Press 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 1:13 PM CST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Kaiser Permanente affiliates will pay $556 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged the health care giant committed Medicare fraud and pressured doctors to list incorrect diagnoses on medical records to receive higher reimbursements, federal prosecutors said.

The deal announced Wednesday came more than four years after the U.S. Department of Justice filed the legal claim in San Francisco that consolidated allegations made in six whistleblower complaints.

The affiliates in the settlement include the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado; The Permanente Medical Group; Southern California Permanente Medical Group; and Colorado Permanente Medical Group P.C.

Kaiser, based in Oakland, California, is a consortium of entities that together form one of the largest nonprofit health care plans in the U.S. with more than 12 million members and dozens of medical centers.

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Updated: Yesterday at 1:13 PM CST

Infant girl dies of injuries after January crash in Laval, Que., that killed sister

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

Infant girl dies of injuries after January crash in Laval, Que., that killed sister

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 11:21 AM CST

LAVAL - Police say a five-month-old girl has died from injuries she sustained in a multi-vehicle crash earlier this month in the Montreal area that also killed her six-year-old sister.

Laval police confirmed the baby's death today from the crash on the evening of Jan. 5 on Route 335, near Dagenais Boulevard.

The infant had been in hospital since the crash that killed her sister and injured their parents, who were also sent to hospital.

The crash involving four vehicles left a total of nine people hospitalized.

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Yesterday at 11:21 AM CST

Signage is seen on a police car in Laval, Que., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

Trump announces outlines of health care plan he wants Congress to consider

Michelle L. Price And Ali Swenson, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Trump announces outlines of health care plan he wants Congress to consider

Michelle L. Price And Ali Swenson, The Associated Press 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:56 PM CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the outlines of a health care plan he wants Congress to take up as Republicans have faced increasing pressure to address rising health costs after lawmakers let subsidies expire.

The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit. Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for the tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people.

“The government is going to pay the money directly to you,” Trump said in a taped video the White House released to announce the plan. “It goes to you and then you take the money and buy your own health care.”

Trump's plan also focuses on lowering drug prices and requiring insurers to be more upfront with the public about costs, revenues, rejected claims and wait times for care.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:56 PM CST

President Donald Trump speaks at the Detroit Economic Club, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Judge hands offshore wind industry another victory against Trump in clearing way for NY project

Michael Phillis And Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Judge hands offshore wind industry another victory against Trump in clearing way for NY project

Michael Phillis And Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 2:16 PM CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge Thursday cleared the way for a New York offshore wind project to resume construction, a victory for the developer who said a Trump administration order to pause it would likely kill the project in a matter of days.

District Judge Carl J. Nichols, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled construction on the Empire Wind project could go forward while he considers the merits of the government’s order to suspend the project. He faulted the government for not responding to key points in Empire Wind’s court filings, including the contention that the administration violated proper procedure.

Norwegian company Equinor owns Empire Wind. Spokesperson David Schoetz said they welcome the court's decision and will continue to work in collaboration with authorities. It’s the second developer to prevail in court against the administration this week.

The Trump administration froze five big offshore wind projects on the East Coast days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Trump has targeted offshore wind from his first days back in the White House, most recently calling wind farms “losers” that lose money, destroy the landscape and kill birds.

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Updated: Yesterday at 2:16 PM CST

January 16, 2026

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