Arts & Entertainment

Esteemed musician’s performance will cap WSO season finale

Conrad Sweatman 5 minute read 6:00 AM CDT

Some of us Winnipeggers use our vacation time to jet south for balmier climates.

The California-based Boris Allakhverdyan, one of North America’s leading clarinetists, asked for time off to come to Winnipeg at a time when the hangover of winter still lingers in the air.

He’s not here for the climate, however, but to take centre stage alongside the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in performing a favourite work of his for the orchestra’s final concert this season.

“This is my first time in Winnipeg,” says the Russian-born Armenian principal clarinetist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

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From Taylor Swift to the Oscars, 400-year-old ‘Hamlet’ flourishes in the age of TikTok

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

From Taylor Swift to the Oscars, 400-year-old ‘Hamlet’ flourishes in the age of TikTok

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press 7 minute read 10:15 AM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — He's on screen, onstage, on tour, online and in song. “Hamlet” — William Shakespeare's masterpiece about a moody Danish prince — seems to be having a moment.

A National Theatre production has landed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starring Hiran Abeysekera. There’s a movie version set in London’s South Asian community starring Riz Ahmed. Anthony Hopkins, at 88, is delighting fans on TikTok with some of Prince Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy. The movie “Hamnet” — the fictionalized story of loss that inspired the creation of “Hamlet” — earned Jessie Buckley an Oscar. Taylor Swift's “The Fate of Ophelia” — that's Hamlet's ex — went to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. Eddie Izzard is taking her one-person production of the play on a worldwide tour.

Four hundred years on, “Hamlet” — whose seemingly quite modern antihero is endlessly mulling over what to do after his uncle murdered his father and married his mother — is still giving.

Want even more? There’s even a “Hamnet” play, adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s original novel, and the Royal Shakespeare Company is taking it on a U.K. tour. Shakespeare & Company plans a northeastern U.S. tour of “Hamlet” this year. There’s a Canadian production of “Hamlet, Sweet Prince,” using a queer, contemporary lens. The Acting Company in New York will have a modern-verse version led by a woman and the Peruvian theater company Teatro La Plaza recently presented a version off-Broadway starring eight Spanish-speaking actors with Down syndrome.

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10:15 AM CDT

The Arts

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files
Nola owner Emily Butcher

Three Winnipeg restaurants among Canada’s best

AV Kitching 3 minute read Preview

Three Winnipeg restaurants among Canada’s best

AV Kitching 3 minute read Yesterday at 3:01 PM CDT

Three Winnipeg restaurants have made it into the annual Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list.

Mandel Hitzer’s Deer + Almond and Emily Butcher’s Nola, both which appeared last year, retained their spots but dropped down in placing.

Hitzer’s restaurant at 85 Princess St. held the rear of the top 50, down 16 places from last year’s 34 ranking.

Nola (300 Taché Ave.) came in at 88, after making its debut on last years’ list at 86.

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Yesterday at 3:01 PM CDT

FILE - Colombian singer Shakira rehearses a day ahead of her free concert on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, on May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

Shakira teases new song for the FIFA World Cup 2026 with Afrobeats star Burna Boy called ‘Dai Dai’

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Shakira teases new song for the FIFA World Cup 2026 with Afrobeats star Burna Boy called ‘Dai Dai’

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 1:34 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — From Maracaná Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, just in time for the FIFA World Cup, emerges a familiar global superstar: Shakira.

The Colombian singer shared a minute-long teaser clip on Thursday of a new song, writing on social media, “From Maracaná Stadium, here is “Dai Dai,” the FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026." She also included a mention of Afrobeats star Burna Boy.

In the video short, Shakira appears on the field of Maracaná Stadium, joined by dancers. “Here in this place / You belong,” she sings in English, a male voice harmonizing with her. “What broke you once / Made you strong.”

According to her post, the full song will arrive May 14.

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Yesterday at 1:34 PM CDT

Books

Anders Homenick photo
M.C. Joudrey’s Marmalade Parade was inspired by his relatives’ struggles with memory loss.

Novel’s narrative built on memory’s fallible foundation

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Preview

Novel’s narrative built on memory’s fallible foundation

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read 6:00 AM CDT

We like to think we remember things exactly as they happened, exactly as they were. But memories can be slippery. They can be fragmented. Can they ever really be relied upon?

Winnipeg author M.C. Joudrey wrestles with these ideas in his latest novel, Marmalade Parade (Guernica Editions), which came out earlier this month and will be launched Saturday at McNally Robinson Grant Park.

The initial seeds for the book were planted when Joudrey, 49, began watching family members struggle with memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

“And the really baffling nature of those diseases is how somebody who’s known you for 50 years suddenly doesn’t know you at all, or has no recollection of decades and decades of history,” he says.

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6:00 AM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Blake Lively appears at the SNL50: The Anniversary Special at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Feb. 16, 2025, left, and Justin Baldoni appears at a special screening of

Blake Lively’s lawyers fuel feud with claim of victory after ‘It Ends With Us’ settlement

Michael R. Sisak And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Blake Lively’s lawyers fuel feud with claim of victory after ‘It Ends With Us’ settlement

Michael R. Sisak And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:38 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The bitter public feud between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni may outlive their court fight after all.

Three days after announcing a settlement of the lawsuit brought by Lively over the 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” her lawyers put out a statement Thursday calling the deal a “resounding victory.”

“By agreeing to this settlement, and waiving their right to appeal, Justin Baldoni and every individual defendant now face personal liability for abusing the legal system to silence and intimidate Ms. Lively,” attorneys Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said.

They were alluding to the tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and penalties that a judge could make the defendants pay for costs incurred by Lively when Baldoni filed a countersuit that was ultimately tossed out by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman last June. That complaint accused Lively, her husband — “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds — and their publicist of defamation and extortion.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:38 PM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Top 20 Global Concert Tours from Pollstar

The Associated Press 1 minute read 10:09 AM CDT

The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.

TOP 20 GLOBAL CONCERT TOURS

1 Ed Sheeran $7,321,411 53,191 $137.64

2 Eagles $4,798,262 16,349 $293.49

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Faith

Singer Amy Grant poses for a portrait in New York on Thursday, April 16, 2026. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Amy Grant reflects on her new album, resisting labels and writing dark songs

Krysta Fauria, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Amy Grant reflects on her new album, resisting labels and writing dark songs

Krysta Fauria, The Associated Press 6 minute read 8:24 AM CDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the nearly 50 years she's been working as a musician, Amy Grant has repeatedly resisted the labels others have sought to put on her. It's difficult to overstate the influence the crossover Christian-pop artist had on culture — evangelical and otherwise — in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Throughout the Grammy winner's career and personal life, many Christians have embraced and then rejected her at various points — be it her divorce, her move into secular music or her more recent decision to host her niece’s same-sex wedding.

Her new album, “The Me That Remains,” out Friday, was in part a way of processing a serious bicycle accident in 2022, which resulted in a traumatic brain injury, and the long recovery that followed.

In a wide-ranging conversation with The Associated Press, Grant, 65, reflected on how the accident changed her, her willingness to go dark in her music and why she keeps turning back to her faith. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Talk about your journey with this album.

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8:24 AM CDT

Music

Brendan Canning, left, and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene are photographed in Canning's Toronto home, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Broken Social Scene return older, wiser and slightly more broken

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Broken Social Scene return older, wiser and slightly more broken

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 6 minute read 10:48 AM CDT

TORONTO - More than two decades after Broken Social Scene founders Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning started making music together in a Toronto basement — eventually mutating their two-man project into an unwieldy, ever-shifting indie rock collective — the band is still intact.

Kind of.

“I think parts of us are broken now,” de facto frontman Drew says.

“And I think parts of our relationship are broken, but not the parts that would stop us from continuing.”

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10:48 AM CDT

Music

Dancers from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation in Manitoba dance at Tim Hortons Foundation Camp in Brant, Ont., on Thursday, May 7, 2026, as part of a week-long dance camp organized by Outside Looking In (OLI), a national program using dance to support school engagement among 110 Indigenous youth from 11 First Nation and Inuit communities across Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio

Indigenous youth from across Canada in Ontario for intensive dance camp

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

Indigenous youth from across Canada in Ontario for intensive dance camp

The Canadian Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 3:08 PM CDT

More than 100 young people from 11 First Nation and Inuit communities across Canada are gathering for an intensive dance camp in southern Ontario in a program aimed at empowering Indigenous youth.

Indigenous-led non-profit Outside Looking In is hosting the youth at Tim Hortons Foundation Camp in Brant, Ont., as part of a national program that uses dance to support school engagement.

The event marks the first time the participants, including those from remote and fly-in communities, are coming together in person after months of training at home.

The camp will culminate in a live performance fusing hip-hop and Indigenous culture, led by artistic director Candace Scott-Moore.

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Yesterday at 3:08 PM CDT

Faith

Television evangilist Joni Lamb sings a praise song during 'Celebration', a show that she and her husband Marcus host on the Daystar Network, on July 30, 2001 in Colleyville, Texas. (Lawrence Jenkins/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

Joni Lamb, who started of one of the largest Christian TV networks, has died

John Seewer, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Joni Lamb, who started of one of the largest Christian TV networks, has died

John Seewer, The Associated Press 3 minute read 11:02 AM CDT

Joni Lamb, who with her late husband founded the Daystar Television Network and guided it to become one of the world’s largest Christian TV networks, died Thursday. She was 65.

Lamb, the network's president, had been suffering from serious health issues before sustaining a back injury that caused her health to deteriorate, the network said in a statement. A cause of death was not released.

“Joni’s love for the Lord and for the people we serve shaped this ministry from the beginning,” the network’s board of directors said in the statement.

The network said its ministry will continue on and that Lamb made sure a leadership team was in place.

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11:02 AM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

FILE - Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

Man pleads not guilty to charge of threatening behavior toward ex-Prince Andrew

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Man pleads not guilty to charge of threatening behavior toward ex-Prince Andrew

The Associated Press 2 minute read Updated: 8:52 AM CDT

LONDON (AP) — A man pleaded not guilty Friday to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior toward the former Prince Andrew near his home on King Charles III's Sandringham Estate.

Alex Jenkinson, 39, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court following accusations of threatening behavior toward Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor near the former royal's home earlier this week.

The denial came after reports that Mountbatten-Windsor was threatened by a masked man while walking dogs near his home.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a man wearing a ski mask ran toward the former royal while shouting abuse on Wednesday.

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Updated: 8:52 AM CDT

Environment

FILE - Butterfly Conservation President Sir David Attenborough poses for a photo with a south east Asian Great Mormon Butterfly on his nose, as he launches the Big Butterfly count at London Zoo, July 11, 2012. (John Stillwell/PA via AP, File)

David Attenborough, the excited but hushed voice of nature programs, turns 100

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

David Attenborough, the excited but hushed voice of nature programs, turns 100

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press 6 minute read Updated: 7:19 AM CDT

LONDON (AP) — The BBC is hosting a party for David Attenborough at the Royal Albert Hall. Cinemas are playing his nature films. Friends have spent weeks lavishing praise on the man and his work.

But the world’s most famous wildlife presenter is likely to be uncomfortable with all the attention as he celebrates his 100th birthday on Friday, said Alastair Fothergill, the producer of some of Attenborough’s most well-known documentaries and the director of Silverback Films.

“He’s always been very clear to all of us that work with him: ‘Remember, the animals are the stars, I’m not,’’’ Fothergill told The Associated Press. “So, yes, surprisingly for one of the most famous men on the planet, he doesn’t like being famous at all.”

Glorious gorillas

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Updated: 7:19 AM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

FILE - Kodak Black arrives at the American Music Awards on Nov. 20, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Rapper Kodak Black arrested in Florida on felony MDMA trafficking charge and pleads not guilty

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Rapper Kodak Black arrested in Florida on felony MDMA trafficking charge and pleads not guilty

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:17 PM CDT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Rapper Kodak Black was arrested this week on a drug trafficking charge in central Florida in his latest run-in with law enforcement.

The rapper, whose real name is Bill Kapri, was booked into the Orange County Jail on Wednesday on a felony charge of trafficking MDMA, the synthetic drug also known as ecstasy or molly.

Kapri, 28, entered a written plea of not guilty and asked for a jury trial on Thursday. He also waived appearing in person at a future arraignment hearing in state court. His bond was set at $75,000.

Kapri's arrest followed a police encounter in Orlando in November when officers were called to a neighborhood in Orlando by residents who reported hearing gunshots. Officers encountered a bunch of people hanging out around parked luxury sports utility vehicles, including Kapri, according to a police report.

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Updated: Yesterday at 3:17 PM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Japan’s Sony reports declining profit but expects a record for this year

Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Japan’s Sony reports declining profit but expects a record for this year

Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press 2 minute read 12:31 AM CDT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Group Corp. reported a 3.4% drop in its annual profit but projected Friday a comeback to record profits for the current fiscal year.

Tokyo-based Sony’s net profit for the year through March totaled 1.03 trillion yen ($6.6 billion), down from 1.07 trillion yen in the previous fiscal year.

Ending a plan to release an electric vehicle with Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. hurt its earnings. Rising costs of computer chips also bit into profit and remain a concern, according to Sony, which has film, music and video-game operations.

Sony is forecasting a 1.16 trillion yen ($7.4 billion) profit for this fiscal year, which would be a record for the company and a 13% jump from the year that just ended.

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12:31 AM CDT

Science & Technology

FILE - A Nintendo sign is seen outside Nintendo's official store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Japanese video-game maker Nintendo raises Switch price, forecasts lower profits

Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Japanese video-game maker Nintendo raises Switch price, forecasts lower profits

Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: 5:59 AM CDT

TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo’s annual profit surged 52% in the last fiscal year, lifted by solid sales of its Switch 2 machines and software, the company announced Friday.

The Japanese video-game company behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises also announced it was raising prices, citing challenging business conditions.

It recorded a 424 billion yen ($2.7 billion) net profit for the fiscal year that ended in March, up from nearly 279 billion yen the year before.

Annual sales rose 99% to 2.3 trillion yen ($15 billion) from 1.2 trillion yen a year earlier, as demand for Switch 2 held up, although sales for the first-generation Switch declined.

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Updated: 5:59 AM CDT

May 8, 2026

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