As It Happens5:43Chicago’s famous sidewalk ‘rat hole’ has been removed, but its legacy lives on Winslow Dumaine doesn’t believe Chicago has seen the last of “the rat hole.” The slab of concrete sidewalk with a rat-shaped imprint had become both a source of both pride and consternation for residents. Officials removed it on Wednesday, and the sidewalk … Read more
Elon Musk lashed out at Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday after a court ordered his social media company X to take down footage of an alleged terrorist attack in Sydney, and said the ruling meant any country could control “the entire internet.” At a hearing overnight, Australia’s Federal Court ordered X, formerly called Twitter, to … Read more
It’s only April, but it’s hard to imagine any album will be heard more this year than Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. The album took less than 12 hours to break this year’s record for most single-day Spotify streams, and is projected to sell two million units in its first week. On Thursday, Spotify … Read more
The hype for Taylor Swift’s new album went into overdrive as it appeared to leak online two days ahead of its Friday release. Swifties started sharing tracks on X that they claimed were from the singer’s upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, saying they came from a Google Drive link containing all 17 songs. Some fans … Read more
Mental health and addictions experts are slamming the federal government’s decision to shut down an online service that offered help with finding free counselling and peer support over the last four years. Health Canada announced in February that it would stop funding the Wellness Together Canada website and PocketWell app on April 3. Despite a … Read more
Sisters Leanne and Natasha Manikavasagar are no strangers to seeing AI-generated content on TikTok. But an AI-generated deepfake video of Drake teaching trigonometry took them by surprise. “I was shocked,” said Natasha, a Grade 9 student in Brampton Ont. “Drake looked kind of weird, like his mouth did not match … the way he was … Read more
A new poll suggests 51 per cent of Canadians support banning the social media app TikTok, after a U.S. bill aiming to do just that passed in the House of Representatives. Canada has ordered its own national security review of TikTok, something the Liberal government revealed following passage of the U.S. bill earlier this month. … Read more
A mysterious writer making propaganda for an Afghan branch of ISIS claimed to be based somewhere in Canada which, experts say, could be cause for concern for authorities. Voice of Khurasan, an online publication used by the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K), which is suspected of being behind the Moscow attack that killed at least 140 … Read more
ThredUp’s annual resale report is as close to a State of the Union as thrifters are likely to get. The wide-lens view on the secondhand industry is regularly cited by not just ThredUp but also its competitors, who point to the growth curve it projects as a sign of their own potential. And the message … Read more
Discount retailer Giant Tiger says contact information for some of its customers was compromised in an “incident” linked to a third-party vendor it uses. Alison Scarlett, a spokesperson for the Ottawa-based discount retailer, said it would not name the vendor on Monday but said Giant Tiger uses the company to manage its customer communications and engagement. Giant … Read more
