Author: Press Room

M. Paul Friedberg, a landscape architect whose playgrounds, pocket parks and plazas transformed once-gritty areas of New York City, using familiar urban materials to do so, died on Feb. 15 in Manhattan. He was 93.His death, in a hospital, was announced by Dorit Shahar, his wife.Mr. Friedberg grew up in rural Pennsylvania, but he believed in the promise of cities — their diversity and density — to create happier, healthier societies. Like his friend the sociologist William Whyte, he felt that public spaces were successful only if people used them, and that parks and plazas should be as inviting and…

What was expected in Cincinnati with wide receiver Tee Higgins is official. The Bengals placed the franchise tag on Higgins for the second year in a row, as the wide receiver confirmed as much on X when he posted “tag.”Then, Cincinnati announced the move themselves, proclaiming their “intent of continuing to work toward a long-term deal” with the veteran pass-catcher.  Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins salutes the fans after the Tennessee Titans game at Nissan Stadium. (Steve Roberts-Imagn Images)Currently, Higgins would be paid $26.2 million for the 2025 season if they are not able to reach a long-term pact, which…

Bow down to the Vienna Philharmonic’s tremolo.This is the trembling, hazy effect that string players can make by lightly quivering their bows. Usually very quiet, signifying tension or expectation, tremolos are often designed to be listened past. They don’t tend to be something anyone dwells on or remembers.But passing details of texture like this are what the Viennese — who had their annual three-concert stand at Carnegie Hall this weekend, with pillars of the repertoire by Mozart, Schubert, Bruckner and Dvorak — do better than perhaps anyone else.In moments as different as the start of the grand Finale of Bruckner’s…

DeepSeek’s AI model is cheaper to run and more accessible than American rival ChatGPT, but basic testing has uncovered features that could shape how thousands of start-ups jumping on it could portray China.Restrictions on topics deemed sensitive by Beijing were swiftly revealed after DeepSeek’s market-shattering app launch.An investigation of the product by NewsWire reveals there are two policing mechanisms at play within the program.The first line of the defence is training the model to navigate certain conversations.This involves asking questions and teaching it to provide specific answers.Training the model is not iron-clad — with the right questions, a user might…

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 6, 2025.Steve Marcus | ReutersNvidia shares fell nearly 9% on Monday after President Donald Trump confirmed that tariffs from Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday.The chipmaker’s shares retreated on a bad day for the market. The Dow, of which Nvidia is a component, tumbled 800 points, or 1.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite slid more than 3%.Nvidia shares are now trading at the same price they were in September, before the U.S. presidential election. The…

“Pachamama,” said our guide, Orlando Condori. He tilted his glass, pouring some blush-colored wine onto the parched sand.“Si, la Pachamama!” said everyone else, doing the same.They looked at me.“Pachamama!” I said as I poured half my drink into the earth. I had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it, but I did it.It was a shame. I’d been enjoying the rosé. Then again, it wasn’t the worst idea — I was lightheaded. So lightheaded that I had to sit back down.“That’s not the wine,” said Niki Barbery-Bleyleben, a conservation ambassador for Prometa, an environmental organization…

Trump is set to impose sweeping tariffsPresident Trump’s threats to impose stiff tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China are expected to become a reality today. Trump said yesterday that there was no chance for a deal to avert them. Company executives and foreign officials scrambled to prepare.The tariffs will add a 25 percent fee on all Mexican and Canadian exports coming across those borders and an additional 10 percent for Chinese goods. Canada was poised to retaliate, potentially setting off a trade war, and Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said: “Whatever the decision is, we will also make…

President Donald Trump said he would reveal the future of a rare-earth minerals deal with Ukraine Tuesday during his address to Congress, after peace negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to a halt Friday after a disorderly White House visit. Zelenskyy visited Washington Friday amid negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, and was poised to sign a minerals agreement that would allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for U.S. support in the country. But after a tense exchange between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy over whether diplomacy was the correct avenue to secure a peace…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued his efforts to revive the Confederate names of military bases, announcing on Monday that he is re-renaming Fort Moore, whose previous name honored the confederate general Henry Benning.The base, which is in Georgia, will again be called Fort Benning.The base’s name was changed in 2023 as part of a wider bipartisan effort to eliminate military honors bestowed on Confederate officers who rebelled against the Union during the Civil War. Mr. Hegseth views those changes as part of a “woke” culture and wants to return the bases back to their old names.Current law does not let…

Descrease article font size Increase article font size March may be a sweeter-than-normal month for some who spend hours stuck behind the wheel around the Greater Toronto Area. Not only will school buses be off the road for a week during March Break, but the 407 Express Toll Route (ETR) will be free for some drivers during rush hour for the month.The 407 ETR said the highway will be free between from QEW in Burlington and Brock Road in Pickering from Monday through Friday between the hours of 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Get breaking…