‘Come September…’

Making predictions in print is rarely a good idea, and saying “I told you so” is always rude, but rules are made to be broken. On June 10, one week before the short-lived ‘memorandum of understanding’ on the Middle East war was signed, I wrote a piece on that war that predicted what would happen next.

It said: “The next few months should be eventful but not alarming: ceasefires made, broken and remade on the U.S.-Iran front, while Gaza rots … Come September, however, things will probably start to get exciting, because the elections will create deadlines. Not for Iran, of course, but for Trump and for Netanyahu.”

I’m not claiming any great insight here. To the contrary, I’m pointing out that the probable course of events was so obvious as to be almost inevitable. The Iranians had already won just by not losing, and Donald Trump had no cards left to play.

It wasn’t yet clear that his cartoonish defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, had already managed to squander most of America’s large stockpile of precision-guided bombs and missiles with no visible effect on Iranian strategy, but that doesn’t really matter anyway. American weapons are of no relevance so long as Iran can keep control of the Strait of Hormuz.

UN General Assembly endorses a new world map that shows more accurately Africa’s size

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday endorsed a new world map that represents Africa more accurately in its larger size, a culmination of a recent campaign led by African countries and advocacy groups.

Friday’s resolution, which was sponsored by Togo and backed by members of the African Union, was passed with 164 member states voting in favor. Only the U.S. voted against it while six other countries — Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine — abstained.

The vote encourages governments and institutions around the world to replace the traditional Mercator map, commonly used since the 16th Century, with the Equal Earth projection that advocates and geographers say shows locations more accurately.

The Mercator projection shows Greenland and Africa as appearing to be about the same size whereas in the Equal Earth projection that shows continents in their true proportions, Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland.

Councillors want city to revamp homeless camp approach

Three Winnipeg councillors say the city uses lack of housing as an excuse to drop the ball on managing public spaces affected by the homeless crisis.

Sherri Rollins, Cindy Gilroy and John Orlikow want bureaucrats to develop a co-ordinated, proportionate and measured approach to maintaining safe, accessible and usable public spaces.

On Friday, they put forward a motion at the final city centre committee meeting before the Oct. 28 election. Gilroy is the only one seeking re-election, in the Daniel McIntyre ward.

“Right now, we have de facto designated encampments. We have increasing social disorder that much of the sector is pointing toward our own policy and blaming it for causing the disruption to the whole entirety of the city and spreading the problem,” said Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry).

Argentine court clears return of Nazi-looted portrait to Jewish dealer’s heir

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A long-lost Italian portrait looted from a prominent Jewish art dealer during World War II was set to be returned to his heir after an Argentine court on Friday approved a deal under which the daughter of a fugitive Nazi official agreed to give up her claim rather than face trial.

The agreement paves the way for the long-sought return of “ Portrait of a Lady ” to Marei von Saher, the sole surviving heir of Dutch-Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, whose celebrated collection was sold under duress to Nazi officials after Adolf Hitler’s Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940.

Patricia Kadgien, the daughter of the late high-ranking Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, and her husband, Juan Carlos Cortegoso, were charged with aggravated cover-up last year after authorities said they hid the 18th-century painting despite knowing it was being sought by Argentine and international investigators.

Under the agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the couple agreed to give up any claim to the work and consent to its return to von Saher in exchange for avoiding a criminal trial and spending two years under court supervision. During that time, they must make payments to a hospital in Argentina's coastal city of Mar del Plata, where they live, and keep authorities informed of their whereabouts.

Gander, N.L., defends invitation to U.S. ambassador Hoekstra to 9/11 commemoration

ST. JOHN'S - The Town of Gander, N.L., says its invitation to United States Ambassador Pete Hoekstra to attend a 9/11 ceremony this month was protocol, not an endorsement.

Hoekstra is among a list of dignitaries attending the town’s commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

News of his attendance prompted strong reactions online, as well as an article in satirical news site The Beaverton, titled “Come from Away sequel will see Newfoundlanders put the friggin’ boots to Pete Hoekstra.”

“Come From Away” is a hit musical about how the people of Gander fed, clothed and cared for more than 6,500 air passengers who were stranded there for days after the 9/11 attacks.

PQ leader says his immigration comments were ‘distorted’ by opponents in campaign

MONTREAL - Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said comments he has made about immigration have been "distorted" by his opponents as Quebec's political parties wrapped up the second week of the provincial election campaign on Friday.

Immigration and anglophone rights took centre stage over the week as leaders continued to campaign ahead of the Oct. 5 provincial election.

The Parti Québécois, which has maintained its lead in the polls despite growing support for the governing Coalition Avenir Québec, is facing criticism after St-Pierre Plamondon stirred up controversy with comments about immigrants in schools.

In recent days, the PQ leader has linked immigration to overcrowded schools and the decline of the French language. On Saturday, he held a press conference outside a Quebec City high school where modular classrooms are being used to accommodate students.

Changes to Canada’s climate now ‘irreversible,’ federal report says

OTTAWA - The impacts of climate change in Canada are now largely irreversible and average temperatures are expected to rise by at least 3.5 C by the end of the century, a new government report warns.

The report, published Thursday, is the second released by Environment and Climate Change Canada examining changes to Canada's climate. It was authored by nearly two dozen government and climate science experts.

It says that even if the world reaches net-zero emissions by 2075 — which would mean any greenhouse gases would be captured by nature or technology — the effects in Canada will be stark.

The report says those effects include a nearly 50 per cent increase in the area burned by wildfires and glaciers in Western Canada losing more than 75 per cent of their mass.

SOCAN sues Suno, alleges AI company copies Canadian music without paying creators

Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization is suing U.S. artificial intelligence company Suno, alleging the AI music generator copied songs in its repertoire — including Nickelback’s 2005 hit “Photograph” — without permission or compensation.

Apple begins replacing Lake Ontario with ‘Lake America’ on maps app for U.S. users

WASHINGTON - Apple is changing its Maps app to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" for users in the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order to change the name of the Great Lake.

"Apple Maps has just announced that it has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, so now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding" Trump posted on social media Wednesday. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the Fox Business network Monday that Trump reached out directly to Apple to ensure the new name would be used on its service.

People in Canada who use Apple Maps still see the lake identified as Lake Ontario.

Trump contacted Apple directly to change name of Lake Ontario to Lake America: Burgum

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump contacted Apple directly to pressure the tech giant to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America," a top administration official said Monday.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the Fox Business network the body of water's name might soon change on Apple maps.

Trump signed an executive order last week to rename the Great Lake as tensions between the United States and Canada escalated following a breakdown in trade talks.

Google Maps updated its service to identify the body of water as "Lake America" for users in the United States over the weekend. The company said in a post on its corporate website Saturday the change was made because the U.S. government's geographic names database had formally renamed the lake.

Icelandic voters reject a proposal to restart negotiations to join the European Union

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland's voters rejected restarting negotiations to join the European Union in a referendum that pitted concerns about geopolitical stability against keeping national control of Iceland’s prized fisheries, officials said Sunday.

Opponents defeated the measure by a margin of 52.8% to 47.2%, the National Electoral Commission said. The result puts the divisive issue to rest for now — more than a decade after a euroskeptic government ended EU talks that had begun after the 2008 financial crisis.

The vote Saturday was held in the shadow of repeated threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to take control of nearby Greenland. Although Iceland is a NATO member, supporters said European solidarity would provide greater protection if Trump ever made similar threats toward the volcanic island.

Iceland’s left-leaning coalition government, elected in 2024, moved up the EU referendum it had planned for next year after Trump mistakenly named Iceland four times while speaking about his designs on Greenland.

City advised 275 people in 72 camps as of July

A tally by the City of Winnipeg shows the number of people in encampments has fallen by a few hundred since last September.

A Friday presentation to city council members shows 245 people lived in 72 encampments across the city in July, compared with about 100 encampments with 700 people in September 2025.

“There’s some good progress that’s being made … The number of people in encampments is less than half of what it was last year,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The city did not provide numbers for July 2025. It has previously noted the number of encampments tends to increase in warmer months, which has happened each month since February 2026.

Carney’s defence of Lake Ontario carries enormous weight

Prime Minister Mark Carney's response to Trump's "Lake America" name change suggests something kind of new in the fight against the United States in this escalating trade war: pride in Canada’s Indigenity.

Premiers at odds over leveraging potash in Canada’s trade war with U.S.

OTTAWA - Premiers are sharply divided over whether to use Canada's natural resources as leverage in the trade war with the U.S., and potash has emerged as a key point of contention.

Canada is a major global supplier of potash, a key ingredient in fertilizers that are vital for the agricultural sector. The U.S. imports about 85 per cent of its potash from Canada.

While Ontario’s Doug Ford is pushing to pull the most damaging levers with the U.S., Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe and Alberta’s Danielle Smith are warning about a harmful long-term backlash.

Federal politicians are also weighing in. NDP leader Avi Lewis called for an export tax on "oil, gas, thermal coal, potash and other minerals to hit Trump where it hurts."

United Nations talks in Mongolia expose growing drought crisis as climate impacts worsen

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Representatives from nearly 200 countries wrapped up United Nations desertification talks in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Friday, seeking ways to keep land productive as climate change heats the planet and degraded soils and landscapes lose their ability to hold water, produce food and support livelihoods.

Up to 40% of the world’s land is degraded, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which organizes the biennial talks. Droughts are also emerging in areas that were not considered highly vulnerable a decade ago, said Yasmine Fouad, the convention’s executive secretary.

“Drought is coming coupled with the impact of climate change,” Fouad said in an interview with the Associated Press. “It’s becoming more frequent, more intense and more prolonged."

Countries left Ulaanbaatar without resolving one of the talks' key issues — whether to create a legally binding global drought agreement — postponing a decision until the next round of talks in Egypt in two years. The issue had already been deferred at the previous meeting two years ago.

Middle East war, oil prices expected to push Alberta’s budget back into the black

CALGARY - Alberta’s finances are swinging back into the black after war in the Middle East sent global energy prices surging.

The province’s latest fiscal update predicts a $2-billion surplus — a huge turnaround from the $9.4-billion deficit originally expected for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

It's the latest reversal of fortune for the oil-rich province perennially tied to international energy markets.

Finance Minister Jason Nixon welcomed the quarterly windfall as good news but warned the forecast could just as quickly take another turn.

Canada is bolstering its defense industry as US relations fray. A boom is on for local contractors

TORONTO (AP) — As Canada moves to reduce its dependence on American military suppliers, the push is on display inside a Toronto garment factory.

Hunched over sewing machines, two workers rapidly stitch together pieces of camouflage-patterned fabric and Velcro strips. In the next room, workers snip stray threads as they inspect the finished product: helmet covers for the Canadian military.

The factory is assembling uniforms for Wuxly, a luxury parka maker that is among a flurry of Canadian companies branching into defense contracting. As Canadian military spending surges, others are developing remote sensors for the country's vast Arctic region, making drones to resupply soldiers, and building autonomous robots.

The boom in the defense sector reflects Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's vow to strengthen the country's economic self-sufficiency amid fraying relations with Washington, including a fresh escalation this week with new rounds of tariffs.

Canadian Army looking for surveillance, cargo-drop drone suppliers

OTTAWA - The federal government has put out a small shopping list for new drones for the Canadian Army, which includes land and aerial drones that can deliver cargo and supply munitions to troops.

It's also looking for aerial surveillance and reconnaissance drones, including some specifically designed to operate in "extreme cold" Arctic environments.

Ottawa has issued a batch of five tenders under the army's Minerva initiative, a program designed to integrate drones into its operations.

“The Canadian Army soldier will face an increasingly complex and dangerous battlespace in the future," one of the drone tenders said.

Buy Canadian: Purchasing patriotism sees renewed push amid rising tariffs

Buy Canadian sentiment is seeing a resurgence across the country as backlash to U.S. tariffs grows.

Consumers eager to support local products and businesses are swapping shopping tips and resources online as some retailers renew labelling of tariffed or homegrown goods in stores.

The Canada List, a website that ranks thousands of products sold in Canada based on their contribution to the Canadian economy, has seen a dramatic rise in traffic in recent days, founder Matthew Shane said in an interview Wednesday.

"My back-of-the-envelope calculation is daily traffic is actually up 10,000 per cent since Friday," Shane said, adding thousands of people are signing up for the newsletter daily. "It's a strong indication that the Canadian public is increasingly engaged in these trade tensions."

New U.S. tariffs and trade tensions are ‘manageable,’ says Scotiabank CEO

TORONTO - As Canadian businesses grapple with the latest flare up in U.S. trade tensions, executives at Scotiabank still see the trade situation as "manageable" for the domestic economy

"The fundamentals in Canada are pretty good, if you look at the job growth numbers, if you look at the fiscal capacity on the back of oil prices, and if you look at some of the activity that's starting because of the prime minister's agenda, you actually have a backdrop that's pretty good," Scotiabank chief executive Scott Thomson said on the bank's third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on about $28 billion worth of Canadian products over the weekend after trade talks collapsed.

The federal government, meanwhile, announced Tuesday its own suite of retaliatory dollar-for-dollar tariffs on American goods, which are set to take effect Sept. 8. That includes upping tariffs on American steel and aluminum products from 25 to 50 per cent and imposing other levies on clothing, appliances, dairy products and more.

Earth is simmering in its hottest water temps on record, and that’s bad for fish and us

The world's oceans simmered to their hottest temperatures on record over the weekend and are likely to warm even further in the next few months, putting stress on life in the water and on land too, the European climate service Copernicus announced Monday.

Spurred by a still growing but already supersized natural El Nino and human-caused climate change, the world's ocean temperatures hit 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday and Saturday, narrowly edging out the average daily record set in March 2024, said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead for Copernicus.

“This is yet another sign of our climate system under strain and the ocean under immense pressure,” Burgess said.

Jane Lubchenco, an oceanographer and former chief of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the record “very troubling.”