Your forecast
Sunny, becoming a mix of sun and cloud near noon. Wind becoming south at 20 km/h this morning. High 26 C, Humidex 32, UV index 8 or very high.
What’s happening today
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s 85th season begins in earnest Wednesday night with Ballet in the Park, the company’s annual al fresco showcase at Assiniboine Park’s Lyric Theatre.
This week’s performances will also mark the first time longtime soloist Stephan Azulay will step out as a newly minted principal dancer, while Amanda Solheim and Joshua Hidson have been called up from the corps de ballet to second soloists. Aidan Vaudreuil also joins the company as an apprentice. Jen Zoratti has a preview here.
Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancers Stephan Azulay (left), Amanda Solheim (top), and Joshua Hidson all sashay into new roles at this year’s Ballet in the Park. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
Today’s must-read
Scott Joseph Taylor in Portage la Prairie was among seven people arrested and charged after a Long Plain First Nation woman was accused of befriending and luring teens into a room where they were coerced into performing sex acts in Portage between February and June.
“I was completely innocent, there was no evidence,” he said. “They completely got the wrong guy.”
RCMP admitted as much last Friday, issuing a media release confirming Taylor “was not involved in this occurrence” and that all charges had been stayed against him.
By then, Taylor had been branded a pedophile. Within hours of being charged, he was receiving death threats over social media. He was fired from his job as a truck driver. The front of his house was spray-painted with the words “certified pedo.” Dean Pritchard has the story.
The front of Scott Taylor’s house was spray-painted after his arrest. (Supplied)
On the bright side
The second baby of a tree-dwelling kangaroo made its public debut this week in New York, poking its pink head head out of its mom’s furry white pouch.
The tiny Matschie’s tree kangaroo, or Dendrolagus matschiei, was born in December and is the second born to the same mother since 2022. It also was the third of its kind born at the Bronx Zoo since 2008.
The tree kangaroo species only gestate for about six weeks before they are born and immediately crawl into their marsupial moms’ pouches, the zoo said in a statement. It takes around seven months for the young to start peeking out of the pouch. The Associated Press has the story.
A Matschie’s tree kangaroo joey that made its first appearance from its mother’s pouch at New York’s Bronx Zoo this month. (Wildlife Conservation Society/Terria Clay via The Associated Press files)
On this date
On July 24, 1942: The Winnipeg Free Press reported in Egypt, British air and land forces were striking at the Axis front after consolidating gains west of El Alamein. In northern Caucasia, Red Army forces beat back massive German attacks along the banks of the Don River northeast of Rostov. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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