Billie Eilish

Mitch Marner and mom Bonnie

Blaine Ruppenthal

Up first on Faces is alternate singer Billie Eilish, 18  We’ve caught her smiling even though she usually twists her pleasant features into sinister stares for her young audience. But now Billie is on contract to write and sing the theme song of the next James Bond movie, No Time To Die. Billie says she is honoured. At centre, Bonnie Marner, Mitch’s mom, who confesses to City News she never thought about her son, now 22, being a huge star. She just wanted him to have fun. Bless you, Bonnie. At right, shocking news that a young Winnipeg high school student and air cadet, Blaine Ruppenthal, 17, has died in hospital from the this year’s intense strain of Influenza A.

Casey is the new name given to the dog found in a suitcase by joggers earlier this month. Audra Brown updates the story.

The world’s second Starbucks pickup-only store will open in downtown Toronto in February to offer services solely for people ordering on their mobile phones. New York City was the first city to get the new, smaller Starbucks, which offers no seating, and only caters to customers who order ahead with the Starbucks app. The second pick-up location will open on Feb. 4 at 25 King Street West in Commerce Court. CTV

Crazy truck rage?

With the dawn Wednesday comes the story of a gravel truck driver who claims he didn’t even see the car that he hit and drove off the road on the 401 near Bayview Ave. Monday. Happily, no one was seriously hurt in the crash. It came to the attention of police because of dashcam video posted to Twitter. It shows the huge truck whacking the Honda Civic and driving it off the road. On the right shoulder, the truck sideswipes the car with a terrific force that seems intentional. As noted, the women driver of the Honda escaped serious injury. Her side of the story is not yet published. There many questions hanging over this one.

Georgia Pirovolakis and son Michael/Toronto.com

Reporter Joanna Lavoie updates the hard battle fought by the Pirovolakis family as they raise funds for an experimental therapy to stop, or cure, their toddler son’s rare disease. It is spastic paraplegia type 50 known to observant Leaside and East York residents as SPG50. Lawn signs urging people to help cure the affliction are seen everywhere. Some $3 million is needed with about one million already raised.

Reporter Tina Yazdani talks about three separate fatal fires in the region over the past 24 hours.

The Queen has agreed that Harry and Meghan will step back from royal duties and split their time between the UK and Canada. “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family,” she said in a statement.

A stolen tractor-trailer sped into the intersection of Eglinton Ave. and Mavis Rd. in Mississauga early Monday hitting a sedan and an SUV. The truck driver is now dead and the other drivers are said to be in serious condition. Police say the tractor-trailer was heading east on Eglinton through the intersection at high speed when it slammed into the sedan, which was pushed into the path of an SUV. The truck rolled into the gas station on the corner and demolished the large Esso sign. Other photos of the scene are on Twitter

The UK tabloid Daily Mail has been haunting Moore Park in hope of finding a story about Meghan Markle’s friends, Jessica and Ben Mulroney. Monday it has a spread of photos showing the two coming and going from their home. Mr. Mulroney is seen slipping on ice near his car. Jessica Mulroney is a close friend of the duchess. The story says she was in British Columbia until recently helping to care for Prince Archie while Meghan returned to London where she and Harry announced their go-it-alone plan.

A false emergency alert saying there had been a “nuclear incident” as the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station appears to have been the result of a human error. Reports say the emergency alert system was being tested Sunday morning when an actual warning was sent out by mistake. CP24 says the alert sent people “across the region into panic” but City News found some locals who yawned

CPC convention at Congress Centre June 27

The Conservative Party of Canada will elect its next leader at a convention on June 27 at the Toronto Congress Centre downtown. To vote in the election, members will have to sign up by April 17. Candidates have just over two months to pull together $300,000 and get 3,000 signatures in order to have their names on the ballot

Hummer name to be used on an electric pickup truck

General Motors will use the Hummer name on an electric pickup truck to be revealed in a commercial on the Super Bowl in February, a source familiar with the plan confirmed to CNN Business. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story Friday, says the company has signed on basketball star LeBron James to help.