What’s happening today
Meng Wanzhou during a break from court proceedings on Tuesday. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)
Hearing set to start: The formal extradition hearing for Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive arrested in 2018, is expected to begin in Vancouver. She is accused of fraud in the United States. Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison last night (today in China) in a spy case seen as retaliation for Meng’s arrest. Earlier this week, a Chinese court rejected Canadian Robert Schellenberg’s appeal of a death sentence in a drug case that was imposed after Meng was detained. Another Canadian, Michael Kovrig, is awaiting a verdict after being tried in China on espionage charges. The Associated Press reports. READ MORE
More firefighting help: More than 100 firefighters from South Africa will arrive in Manitoba to help battle wildfires. READ MORE
‘Active shooter’ arrest: The RCMP will release more information after they alerted the public about an active shooter northwest of St. John’s on Tuesday night. A 30-year-old man was arrested. READ MORE
Taliban takes capitals: The Taliban has seized three more provincial capitals in Afghanistan, governments officials said today, and the militant group now controls about two-thirds of the country. The U.S. plans to complete withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan by the end of August. The Associated Press reports. READ MORE
Weather
Your forecast: Sunny, becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon, with a high of 24 C, and wind from the west at 15 km/h increasing to 30 km/h and gusting to 50 this morning. There is a 60 per cent chance of showers this evening and early Thursday.
In case you missed it
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSGary and Valerie Firth are concerned about wait time in Winnipeg hospitals after Gary experienced waits of 20+ hours over three days at St Boniface Hospital. He was told to keep coming back over three days because there was no one there to treat him.
‘Worst I’ve seen’: Gary Firth waited nearly 24 hours in St. Boniface Hospital’s emergency room over three separate visits. He’s just one of the patients who have suffered during long waits at the overrun ER recently. Katie May reports. READ MORE
Redesigning iconic intersection: The City of Winnipeg is seeking bids to design a major vision for the intersection of Portage and Main in a new request for proposal. The document suggests new pedestrian safety barriers should be removable to allow for crossings during special events. Joyanne Pursaga reports. READ MORE
On this date
On Aug. 11, 1933: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that a forest fire raging in Newfoundland threatened the small town of Burlington. On Lake Winnipeg, skipper Jon Sigurder of the steamer Grand Rapids declared that the cyclone in which four Winnipeg naval reservists met disaster was “one of the worst windstorms in my experience.” The search for the missing men continued. Official reports issued at Washington and Ottawa indicated the worst crop disaster in many years; in the U.S., the wheat crop was the smallest in 40 years.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Winnipeg Free Press READ MORE
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