Your forecast
Mainly sunny; hazy. Wind from the south at 20 km/h increasing to 40 gusting to 60 near noon. High 29 C, Humidex 38, UV index 8 or very high. A heat warning is in effect for the city of Winnipeg.
As Canada’s premiers reckoned with housing, health care and their contentious relationship with Ottawa during meetings last week in Halifax, many of them remained consumed by climate change-related natural disasters that have only escalated since they returned home.
“It’s not lost on us that emergency preparedness for natural disasters is more important than ever,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said in his closing remarks on the final day of the Council of the Federation conference.
Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers gathered for three days of meetings, and discussion of ongoing natural disasters was consistently on the agenda, Houston said. The Canadian Press reports.
Traffic moves along Alberta Highway 63 as wildfire smoke hangs in air in Fort McMurray, Alta., in May. (Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press)
What’s happening today
Can’t get away to the lake this month? Cirque Italia brings the water to you, under a giant blue-and-white big top tent in the parking lot of St. Vital Centre, 1225 St. Mary’s Rd.
Following the recent production of the horror-themed Paranormal Cirque, this show, which opens Thursday and runs to Aug. 4, offers Winnipeggers a fresh chance to experience the circus magic, this time with a splash of fun and a lot less fright. Thandi Vera has a preview here.
Hanging ball aerial act. (Andris Jansons / Cirque Italia)
Today’s must-read
RCMP have warned people not to take matters into their own hands after an alleged child sex trafficking ring in Portage la Prairie sparked shock, anger and vigilantism.
Six suspects from, or near, Portage are facing child sexual abuse-related charges, while a seventh person, whose charges were stayed after he was wrongly accused, said he was beaten up in the street and forced into hiding.
“The temperature in Portage definitely was hot after the (RCMP) announcement,” said a woman who lives in the same neighbourhood as at least one of the suspects. “People are angry. They want justice.”
RCMP said Wednesday they have received reports of vandalism, mischief and threats resulting in increased patrols. No one has been arrested for vigilante acts. Chris Kitching has the story.
Scott Joseph Taylor left his home in Portage la Prairie and won’t return because he was attacked in the street after police wrongly identified him as being involved in a child sex ring. (Supplied)
On the bright side
A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit.
The planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter’s.
One big difference: It takes this planet more than a century, possibly as long as 250 years, to go around its star. It’s 15 times the distance from its star than Earth is to the sun. The Associated Press has more here.
This illustration provided by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in July 2024 depicts a cold gas giant orbiting a red dwarf. (T. Müller (MPIA/HdA) via The Associated Press)
On this date
On July 25, 1952: The Winnipeg Free Press reported in Chicago, veteran politicians triumphed over intra-party revolt and brought the Democratic party to the brink of choosing its presidential candidate; all signs pointed to Gov. Adlai Stevenson getting the nod. In Manitoba, the government was expected to announce that people whose homes were on “the wrong side of the dikes” would not be barred from suing the government over alleged depreciation of property value following the construction of the dikes. 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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