Montreal man on the hook for thousands of dollars after a feature on his Tesla caused an accident
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
A scientist in the United Kingdom is taking note of a COVID-19 variant originating from Botswana with an astonishing number of mutations, though there have only been 82 confirmed cases to date.
The B.1.1.529 variant was first discovered in the southern African country and has since been discovered in South Africa and in a traveller in Hong Kong who had been to South Africa. In a briefing on Thursday, South African officials reported 82 cases of the variant, 77 of which are in South Africa.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, said earlier this week that its potential is worth noting due to its 32 spike mutations, even though there had only been 10 confirmed cases at the time.
“Export to Asia implies this might be more widespread than sequences alone would imply,” Peacock wrote on a website for genome sharing. “Also the extremely long branch length and incredibly high amount of spike mutations suggest this could be of real concern.”
Mutations in the spike protein, or spike mutations, can change the way a virus infects cells and spreads. These mutations can also make it harder to for the body’s immune system to attack it.
The World Health Organization currently lists B.1.1.529 as a “variant under monitoring,” which is below the agency’s classification of “variants of interest” and “variants of concern.”
On Thursday, the United Kingdom announced it would be banning flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini as a precaution. Travellers returning from these countries would have to quarantine.
Dr. Peter Juni, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto and a member of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, told CTV News Channel on Thursday that these sorts of cases are why border restrictions are important.
“This combination of two doses of a vaccine plus one negative test -- it can also be a rapid test -- that’s just a good safeguard against importing these sorts of variants too early into the province,” he said. “It happened before with Alpha, it happened with Delta, we don’t want it once more.”
In a Twitter thread about the variant, Peacock called the spike mutation profile “awful,” but emphasized the low case numbers make it only something to keep an eye on for now.
“Worth emphasising this is at super low numbers right now in a region of Africa that is fairly well sampled, however it very, very much should be monitored due to that horrific spike profile,” he said.
“It’s possible this is just an odd cluster that isn’t very transmissible. I hope that’s the case,” he wrote in another tweet.
Francois Balloux, professor of Computational Systems Biology and director of University College London’s Genetics Institute said in a statement that B.1.1.529 has an “unusual constellation of mutations” and likely evolved during a prolonged infection of an immunocompromised person.
“I would definitely expect it to be poorly recognised by neutralising antibodies relative to Alpha or Delta,” he wrote. “It is difficult to predict how transmissible it may be at this stage.”
Balloux said that the variant is not one to be overly concerned with, unless “it starts going up in frequency in the near future.”
For Juni, this new variant is something to keep an eye on, but not one to make an drastic adjustments just yet.
“It’s important to monitor it, but we shouldn’t be overly concerned right now,” he said.
“Let’s remember (the virus is) about indeed invading the immune system – that’s one aspect – but it’s also about how well it transmits to other people and how well it can propagate. So when you just take all of that into account, we will see what happens.”
With files from Reuters
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
In the 10 years since John William started to lose his vision, he's been finding new ways to enjoy his vast personal library.
Israel closed its main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza on Sunday after Hamas militants attacked it, reportedly wounding several Israelis, while the defense minister warned of "a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza."
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory.
How legitimate are claims by some content creators that the average person can earn passive income from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram? Personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says it's quite possible, if you're willing to put in the initial time and effort.
Exactly six months before Election Day, Biden and Trump are locked in the first contest in 112 years with a current and former president competing for the White House. It's a race that is at once deeply entrenched and highly in flux as many voters are only just beginning to embrace the reality of the 2024 campaign.
In particular, messages that involve phishing — an attack where a scammer tries to trick the recipient into clicking a malicious link, downloading malware or sharing sensitive information — are on the rise.
The Montreal-born actor, famed for his portrayal of Captain Kirk in "Star Trek," says he is open to reprising the iconic role in the sci-fi franchise as long as the storytelling is stellar.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.