Author: News Room

As some people try to cut down their drinking and embrace Dry January, they may look to Canada’s health agencies for guidance — and find some conflicting advice. This week, the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research launched a website where users can calculate their health risks — including cancer, heart disease and stroke — based on the amount of alcohol they consume.The website is built on guidelines issued two years ago by the government-supported Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), which said the risk of cancer rises at much lower levels of alcohol consumption than previously thought.…

Samsung and Google are ready to push a new standard, Eclipsa Audio. This format will enable 3D audio experiences on certain YouTube videos later this year, with support available across Samsung’s 2025 lineup of TVs and soundbars. Over the years, Samsung notably hasn’t supported Dolby Vision HDR for dynamic HDR metadata, choosing instead to promote its preferred alternative, HDR10 Plus. Now, it seems ready to make a similar competitive push for open-source 3D audio support. Eclipsa Audio could eventually serve as a free alternative to Dolby Atmos, the dominant 3D audio format that hardware makers like Samsung pay to license…

Two men from Saskatchewan have been charged after another man had to leap from a moving vehicle during an attempted robbery. According to Winnipeg police, officers were contacted by someone saying they saw a man jump from a moving vehicle that drove away. The victim, a man in his 40s, was interviewed by police. He said he arranged to meet with a man to sell an expensive pair of shoes. When he arrived, the victim entered the man’s car to complete the sale, but another man was hiding in the backseat, pulled a gun on the…

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is back in Ottawa but he returns to more calls not only from his MPs to step down, but at least two riding association presidents as well. Global News confirmed that Quebec Liberal MPs called for Trudeau to step down, as first reported by iPolitics, following similar statements from the Liberals’ Atlantic and Ontario MPs. Now, Mattie Prima, the president of the Willowdale Federal Liberals Riding Association, wants to see the same.“I think that there comes a point with all leadership, there’s a way to gracefully say I’ve accomplished everything I’ve done and maybe it is time…

Some people say it with flowers. Some with an engagement ring. For Keith Beggs, it was a brick surrounded by mortar and placed at Calgary’s Olympic Plaza that showed his true intent for the woman who would become his wife.“She was saying, ‘Are we serious or not?’ So I said, ‘I know, I’ll buy a brick,’” Beggs recalled Friday as he and his wife, Barb, picked up the brick inscribed with their names.Looking back, he said, there’s only one reason he bought the brick.“So she’d marry me.”As part of a fundraiser ahead of the 1988 Olympics, people could purchase and…

Ford launched its “Power Promise” initiative in October that included a free home electric vehicle charger with installation for new EV buyers. The promotion was initially scheduled to end on January 2nd, but now Ford is extending it into the first few months of 2025.Starting today, Ford says its Power Promise promotion will run through March 31st, 2025, giving US customers who buy a new model year 2024 or 2025 Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, or E-Transit more time to take advantage of the perks. Those include the complementary home charger with “standard” installation, 24/7 customer support for charging questions, and…

Infectious disease experts say the avian flu case that infected a 13-year-old in British Columbia shows “worrisome” signs that the virus could be mutating to more easily infect humans, but that the treatment approach taken can help inform future cases. In a letter published in the The New England Journal of Medicine Tuesday, Canadian health officials identified changes in the viral genome sequence of specimens collected from the teenager who tested positive for avian flu and was treated in Vancouver. The case study says the teen was taken to a pediatric intensive care unit with respiratory failure…

It was a Christmas miracle for Lucky Convenience store owners when residents of Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood stepped up after their store was robbed just days before Christmas Eve. “Bad things happen, but good things happen too,” said Polly Xue, who has owned the shop at 244 Perth Ave. with her husband Andy Xue for 15 years.On security footage obtained by Global News, two suspects can be seen breaking into the store through the back entrance and making their way to the cash register.Toronto police confirm they responded to reports of a break-in on Dec. 21, 2024, just after 12:50 a.m.,…

As promised, I’ve got a special mailbag issue this week. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. Like last year, I picked a handful that hit some of the themes I plan to continue covering in 2025. I’m really concerned / worried / curious about the near-term future. Between now and 10 years from now, I think it is very clear AI will be replacing many job functions. What are we all going to do?The leaders at the AI labs say that, yes, there will be job loss, but that doesn’t mean catastrophe. The optimistic take is that humans are creative…

Sarah Bauer woke up to a shaking house. She thought maybe an earthquake had struck near her home in Torrance, a village in Ontario’s cottage country. But when she looked outside, she saw a massive tree had collapsed onto her driveway under the weight of rapidly accumulating snowfall, taking down a power line with it. “It was freaky,” she said. The storm that hit parts of central Ontario in late November and early December was the biggest in recent memory, meteorologists said, reportedly dumping a reported 140 centimetres on Gravenhurst, a town just south of…