Fan groups slam UEFA crypto-token Champions League sponsor

Fan groups slam UEFA crypto-token Champions League sponsor

Benevolence toward fans one day. Making money off them the next day.

Champions League organizer UEFA faced criticism on Tuesday for monetizing supporter engagement by partnering with a company that sells fan tokens through largely unregulated cryptocurrencies.

The commercial deal was announced a day after the Football Supporters Europe group praised UEFA for giving away 10,000 tickets to the Champions League final this season, with thousands of fans also able to attend the other European club competition finals for free.

England’s Football Supporters’ Association said Tuesday's announcement showed the “good and bad of UEFA summed up in two days.”

Dolly Parton, music star, actor and beloved figure who spanned generations, dies at 80 of cancer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died in Nashville. She was 80.

“After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” her publicist, Marcel Pariseau, said in a statement Tuesday.

Known for her curvy physique, massive blond wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.

She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton, who plucked bejeweled banjos, guitars and dulcimers with her long fingernails during performances, was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace.

Man sues WRHA, doctors after wrong leg amputated at Grace Hospital in 2024

A man whose left leg was mistakenly amputated — rather than his infected lower right leg — at the Grace Hospital in 2024 has filed a lawsuit against the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and two doctors involved in his care.

‘Buy Canadian’ takes on new meaning

The “Buy Canadian” push has re-emerged as the federal government rolls out tariffs on $27.6 billion worth of imports from the United States.

Premier Wab Kinew led the Manitoba charge Tuesday, hours after the federal government announced the retaliatory levies that will take effect Sept. 8.

“Whether you look at it as an affordability initiative, or you look at it as a way to support our economy here, buying local always makes sense,” Kinew said at an unrelated press conference. “It makes even more sense right now.”

Mark Carney’s government has responded to new 50 per cent tariffs imposed by the United States on $27.6 billion worth of Canadian products. Trade talks between the countries broke down late Friday.

Fear and loathing in bedbug-infested seniors building

Years of living in a regularly infested suite in an always-infested building have given Lewie Gwyllt nightmares in which he’s wrestling giant bedbugs.

The 64-year-old has lived at 529 Country Club Blvd., a 107-unit seniors’ home run by Manitoba Housing, for nearly eight years. Much of his tenancy has been marked by monthly, but futile, bedbug-eradication treatments.

Gwyllt’s routine is set in stone: he bags his laundry, steams his clothes, and buys covers for any piece of furniture he buys. He has a physical disability and struggles to move things when the pest-control people arrive to spray for the bugs, but he knows the nooks and crannies of his baseboards are a problem spot.

The mental toll has weighed heavily on him. He takes anti-anxiety medication to deal with the stress and despair when the treatments don’t work.

Motion seeks to remove longtime head of Southern Chiefs’ Organization due to ‘behaviour’ concerns

For the second time in a year, the leadership of Southern Chiefs’ Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels is being called into question.

A motion obtained by the Free Press calls “immediately” for a special summit of the 33 SCO chiefs to consider removing Daniels, who’s been at the helm since 2017.

The Aug. 17 motion, put forward by Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean and Bloodvein First Nation Chief Lisa Young, cites concerns about “governance, leadership, accountability, transparency, organizational decision-making and confidence of member Nations in the current leadership of the organization.”

McLean would not provide specific examples Wednesday but said the “behaviour” of Daniels is a concern.