Junior sprint canoe world championship to be held in Halifax area this week

DARTMOUTH - A major international canoeing competition is taking place this week in the Halifax area.

The International Canoe Federation’s Junior and U-23 Canoe Sprint World Championship will be held on Lake Banook in Dartmouth between July 1 and July 5.

The event will feature Olympians and world champions representing 60 countries.

In all, 188 races will be contested over five days, and Hungary is sending the largest team with 52 members.

Ontario jail guards ask for help after coroner’s report on suicides in corrections

TORONTO - Ontario's jail guards are asking for more help after a coroner's report detailed a suicide crisis among correctional workers and made more than two dozen recommendations to the provincial government.

Thirty-four correctional workers have died by suicide over the past 15 years, according to a report by the Office of the Chief Coroner, titled In the Light of Day. 

The report was led by Dr. Reuven Jhirad, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, and Rose Jumarang, who along with a team reviewed death investigations, spoke to more than 90 people and made 28 recommendations meant to improve the health of workers at both provincial and federal institutions.

There have been more suicides among Ontario correctional workers in recent years, the report found. Half of the deaths took place between 2010 and 2019 and the other half between 2020 and 2024, doubling the rate, it said.

Methodology for AP/’FRONTLINE’ investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams

The AP/"FRONTLINE" investigation was based on tens of thousands of leaked scam center files, videos and photos; an analysis with C4ADS of misuse of artificial intelligence at scam centers; an examination of more than 200,000 connections made by devices at four scam compounds in Myanmar linked to entities sanctioned by the U.S. government; and interviews with 58 scam victims and three dozen current and former scammers from 19 countries.

The Associated Press analyzed a sample of 202,013 connections made by devices at four scam compounds in Myanmar that have been linked to entities sanctioned by the U.S. government.

International Justice Mission, an anti-trafficking non-profit, obtained the commercially available ad tech data, which covers several time intervals between February 2025 and January 2026, and shared it with the AP.

Each event in the dataset logs a device’s geographic coordinates and its IP address. AP used a database maintained by Scamalytics, a fraud prevention company, to identify which ISPs had been allocated the IP addresses in the dataset. In case of conflicting or ambiguous results, AP prioritized IP allocations identified by Scamalytics.

Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people

The instructions were clear: He had four days to make each victim fall in love.

And there were a lot of victims. Online, Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, who was trafficked to a scam center in Myanmar, impersonated a 28-year-old Singaporean woman named Ella. On a typical shift, he said, he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time, as supervisors prowled among the desks with electric batons.

In just a month, Koorimannil targeted some 50,000 victims from at least 17 countries, according to records he smuggled out to The Associated Press. His “clients” included a widowed tailor in Kurdistan, a pastry chef in Turkey, a sheep farmer in Kyrgyzstan, soldiers in Iraq, an engineer in Russia, a building painter in Germany, a port officer in Argentina, a student in Indonesia, a security guard in Poland and a dairy farmer in the Republic of Georgia. And he did it using software built with artificial intelligence models from American tech companies that scammers are abusing to target victims at unprecedented speed and scale.

“Everyone is a robot there,” he told AP from his home in southern India in his native Malayalam language.

A rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica is found tucked away in a drawer

The bone was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica's James Ross Island; decades later, a paleontologist spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey's collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur.

What to know about opposition in Albania to a Trump family-linked resort project

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A luxury development project in Albania linked to Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is facing opposition from environmental advocates and has triggered daily protests in the capital, Tirana, dubbed the “flamingo revolution.”

The rallies targeting longtime Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama have drawn participation from across the country.

The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership.

But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of Rama's government.

Congo bans gatherings in areas far from Ebola outbreak. Some say it limits dissent

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Opposition and civil society groups are protesting Congo’s new ban on public demonstrations and mass gatherings in the capital and other areas far from the country’s deadly Ebola outbreak, alleging that the decision aims to limit freedom of speech.

The decision announced over the weekend came as the outbreak of a type of Ebola with no approved treatment or vaccine continues to grow, with 1,307 people infected and 377 dead across three provinces in eastern Congo. It could be the worst Ebola outbreak yet.

Congo’s ministry of interior on Saturday said gatherings and demonstrations were forbidden in the provinces of Kinshasa, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele as fears grow about the outbreak spilling into new areas. None of the provinces have any confirmed cases.

Separately, the mayor of Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city and now under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, also banned public gatherings and demonstrations, including celebrations linked to sport events, on Monday. Congo is in its first World Cup in over half a century.

Nutrition apps can help build healthy habits. For some users, their gaming features carry risks

Green means go, red means stop. Trophies or confetti come with good performance, and people who fall behind get nudged to do better.

Those brightly colored engagement tactics long ago jumped from smartphone games to everything from online shopping to sports betting and classrooms. So it should come as no surprise that many nutrition-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal and Noom also use gaming features to keep users coming back.

But as nutrition apps proliferate, some researchers are raising alarms that gamification features may do more harm than good for some people.

Isabella Anderberg, a psychologist researching digital dieting behavior at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, said calorie tracking can reinforce behaviors associated with body dysmorphia and disordered eating.

Pope promotes Italian nun to top migrant role in his first major appointment of a woman to Holy See

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday made his first major appointment of a woman to the Holy See hierarchy, promoting Italian Sister Alessandra Smerilli to head the Vatican office responsible for migrants, the environment and development.

Smerilli, an economist, is currently the No. 2 in the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. As prefect, she replaces the retiring Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, who turns 80 this month.

With the appointment of Smerilli, Leo appears to be following suit of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who made a point of promoting women to top-level management positions within the Holy See as part of his response to calls by women for greater decision-making roles in the church.

But Leo too is following Francis’ lead by simultaneously naming Cardinal Fabio Baggio as a “pro-prefect” of the office, where he is currently undersecretary.

After N.B. law, all 10 provinces now have job protection for long-term sick leave

FREDERICTON - Natalie Lipschultz, who was fired from her job six and a half years ago while battling cancer, is applauding what she says are long-overdue safeguards now in place across the country designed to prevent other Canadians from experiencing the same fate. 

Lipschultz, of Burnaby, B.C., was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in late 2019. She continued working for her insurance company, balancing the demands of her workplace with gruelling chemotherapy sessions.

But in January 2020, she had a severe drug reaction to her treatment that sent her to the emergency room. A day later, she was fired.

In the years since, Lipschultz joined an advocacy campaign by the Canadian Cancer Society to encourage governments across the country to increase job protections for people who need extended time off due to severe illness.

Iran war turns Asia toward diversifying energy supplies, undermining climate goals

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian nations hit hard by the Iran war's price shocks are rushing to diversify and strengthen their energy security, potentially undermining their commitments to curb climate change.

As negotiations on ending the war drag on, countries in energy hungry Southeast Asia are exploring nuclear power and promising renewable rollouts. But they are also investing in coal power to provide a buffer during times of crisis.

The Iran war has not shaken coal's status as a pillar of Southeast Asia’s energy security, said Sandeep Pai at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability.

Until recently, coal was slowly being phased out to reduce climate change-causing emissions and address air quality concerns. But the conflict has complicated that scenario.

Warming climate, pollution and unplanned growth push Kashmir’s lakes toward disappearance

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Every morning, long, narrow wooden boats called shikaras move elegantly across expansive Dal Lake in a postcard-perfect scene framed by the Himalayan mountains.

But all is not perfect in one of South Asia’s best-known lakes. Pollution from local buildings, invasive plant species that threaten biodiversity and declining water levels, in part due to climate-driven heat, are threatening the long-term existence of Dal Lake and hundreds of other lakes in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

It takes constant effort by workers employed by the local government to keep Dal Lake's weeds at bay, and they must take precautions to avoid skin irritation from the polluted water. Yet it could be worse for the lake, which is located in Kashmir's most populous city, Srinagar. It's one of the few lakes in the region to receive sustained restoration work.

“We are afraid to touch the water with bare hands. Whenever we need to clean something by hand, we wear gloves, because without them our hands quickly develop allergies,” Ghulam Rasool, a weed cleaner employed by the local government, said on a recent afternoon.

Canada approves generic version of Wegovy for weight loss

OTTAWA - Health Canada has approved a generic version of Wegovy, a semaglutide drug that's prescribed to help people lose weight.

The weekly injection is known as Sevmia from the Canadian company Apotex and is pharmaceutically equivalent to weight-loss medication Wegovy from Denmark's Novo Nordisk.

Health Canada says Sevmia can be prescribed to people 12 years of age and over, as a supplement to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for weight management.

It's the third generic semaglutide medication approved by the department, though the first two were authorized for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in adults.

Nursing gains ‘professional’ label for student loans after judge’s ruling, but theology now dropped

WASHINGTON (AP) — Students pursuing graduate degrees in nursing, physical therapy and several other fields will be eligible to take out higher federal student loan amounts — at least for now — after a federal judge blocked part of a Trump administration rule that held them to lower limits.

The U.S. Education Department issued a revised rule on Monday designed to follow the judge's order from last week, officials told The Associated Press. Agency officials called it a temporary change while they fight in court to keep the original rule, which defined medicine, law and other fields as “professional programs” but excluded fields such as nursing.

The department disagrees with the judge's order but will comply, even as officials plan to prevail in the case over which degrees are defined as “professional,” Undersecretary Nicholas Kent said in a statement. “We will continue to make the case that the definition is both lawful and appropriate,” he said.

The change represents a short-term win for groups that sued to stop the rule. Eight groups challenged the department's definition in court, representing nurse practitioners, therapists, speech language pathologists and more.