News
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In local news, County Transit is rolling out a weekend public transit service connecting Wellington, Bloomfield, Picton and Belleville. Between Friday, June 27 and Sunday, September 7, the Summer Weekend Connector Buses will run Friday evenings, Saturday late morning to late evening, and Sunday late morning to dinnertime.The two Summer Weekend Connector Buses run on a set route and schedule, connecting residents, visitors, and workers to key destinations across the region, complementing County Transit’s regular weekday route.The service has been designed to connect more of the County’s geography and meet a wide variety of transportation needs – with a focus on offering a safe ride home from events and dining.This temporary service expansion is funded in part by the municipal portion of the Municipal Accommodation Tax revenue, as well as private sector partners.
Disney and Universal have filed a copyright lawsuit against popular artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney, marking the first time major Hollywood companies have entered the legal battle over generative AI.Filed in federal district court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the complaint claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios to generate and distribute “endless unauthorized copies” of their famed characters, such as Darth Vader from Star Wars and the Minions from Despicable Me.”Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing,” the companies state in the complaint.The studios stated that Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism and claimed the San Francisco-based AI company ignored their requests to stop infringing on their copyrighted works and to take technological measures to halt such image generation.Major AI developers don’t typically disclose their data sources but have argued that taking troves of publicly accessible online text, images and other media to train their AI systems is protected by the “fair use” doctrine of American copyright law.The studios’ case joins a growing number of lawsuits filed against developers of AI platforms — such as OpenAI and Anthropic — in San Francisco and New York.Meanwhile, the first major copyright trial of the generative AI industry is underway in London, pitting Getty Images against artificial intelligence company Stability AI.
Israel attacked Iran’s capital early today, with explosions booming across Tehran. Israel said it targeted nuclear and military sites.The attack comes as tensions have reached new heights over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. The Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency for the first time in 20 years on Thursday censured Iran over it not working with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and swap out some centrifuges for more-advanced ones.Israel for years has warned it will not allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon, something Tehran insists it doesn’t want — though officials there have repeatedly warned it could. The U.S. has been preparing for something to happen, already pulling some diplomats from Iraq’s capital and offering voluntary evacuations for the families of U.S. troops in the wider Middle East.
Sports
A golf tradition since 1960, the US Open started yesterday and wraps upon Father’s Day Sunday. There are four Canadians in the field who all qualified by being in the top go of the PGA player ranking. After the first round on the notoriously difficult course set-ups, there were only 10 of the 156 player field under par. American JJ Spaun leads all at -4. Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Corey Connors ended round one at +2 while Mackenzie Hughes and Nick Taylor were one shot back at +3
For those who prefer a little more speed in their sport than walking pace, the Canadian Grand Prix is also on this weekend down the road at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. There are two practice session this afternoon at 1:30 and 5:00. The third is tomorrow at 12:30 with race qualifying going at 4:00 pm.The 70 lap race over the 4.36 km track starts at 2:00 PM on Father’s Day Sunday. It will take the divers about 90 minutes to cover the 305 km race distance, which is the same distance between Picton and Kitchener. Wow.
If leisurely walks or breakneck speed is not your choice of sport, there is always the NHL and NBA playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers will try to stave off elimination as they are at home to the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
Tonight it is Game 4 in the NBA finals. The Indiana Pacers are at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder and are looking to build on their 2-1 series lead.
