Youth concern powers Futurpreneur applications

Groups offering support to young Manitoba entrepreneurs have clocked an uptick in traffic amid economic uncertainty.

Karen Greve Young is watching the applications roll in at Futurpreneur. The national non-profit offers loans and mentorships to Canadians ages 18 through 39 who are starting businesses.

Greve Young, Futurpreneur’s chief executive, expects a 50 per cent increase in applications this year over last. It follows growth of 15 per cent in 2025.

That year, Futurpreneur worked with more than 1,000 businesses.

Opposition forms to First Nation’s bid for wind farm

A group of residents in southwestern Manitoba is concerned a proposed wind farm could impact their way of life.

RM of Lorne resident Bill Harrison said the Swan Lake First Nation proposal to build 30 to 35 wind turbines would disturb day-to-day life and have adverse environmental and economical impacts.

“Agriculture is a major consideration in Manitoba, it’s a major provider of food. The wind towers, they take up two to three acres a piece just to install. And then the service roads and the actual spot where the towers are planted is more too,” Harrison said Thursday.

The RM of Lorne, located 145 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, has a wind farm in the St. Leon area that was built in 2006 and expanded in 2011. The 200 square kilometre wind farm has 73 turbines that generate the energy needs of more than 40,000 homes, according to the province.

For nimble nonagenarian, there’s been no looking back since exercise epiphany six decades ago

It’s been 46 years since Ray Elliott completed his first Manitoba Marathon but the spry-looking 91-year-old father of three, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of two remembers the occasion like it was yesterday.

Back then, the annual Father’s Day race ended at Winnipeg Stadium near Polo Park. Elliott vividly recalls turning right as he entered the venue and hearing a thunderous roar erupt from the thousands of onlookers who had packed the stands to encourage participants to the finish line.

“It was quite the experience being cheered on by a crowd that large and after witnessing that I got really serious about running, maybe because I wanted to recreate the moment again,” Elliott says, seated in his third-floor Henderson Highway condo, which overlooks a meandering section of the Red River.

Elliott’s marathon days are long gone. Still, he reserves time for physical activity of some sort, every single day. The former Great-West Life manager typically gets up at 5:45 a.m. to go for a brisk walk through his neighbourhood. Then, after he has breakfast with his wife Lillian at her personal care home next door to where he lives, he heads to the YMCA-YWCA to jog around the track for an hour or so. He also bikes, swims and golfs — last week he shot one stroke better than his age at Kildonan Golf Course — and in April set a new provincial record for men ages 90 to 94, when he bench-pressed 42.5 kilograms at a powerlifting competition held at Glenlawn Collegiate.

What prediction market trading is and why it’s gaining popularity

Financial services company Wealthsimple announced Thursday that it will start offering a new form of investment based on real-world events.

The product is called prediction market trading and it's gaining increasing popularity around the world.

Here's a breakdown of how it works, what's driving its growth and what investors should beware of.

What are prediction markets?

FDA panel backs first-of-its-kind flu vaccine using mRNA technology

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new kind of flu vaccine moved a step closer to the U.S. market Thursday as federal health advisers recommended approval of the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating Moderna's new shot, dubbed mFlusiva, for older Americans ahead of the winter flu season. Moderna is seeking full approval for the vaccine's use in people ages 50 to 64 — along with authorization for use in those 65 and older while it conducts additional testing.

The FDA's independent advisory committee evaluated Moderna's studies of the vaccine and voted unanimously that its benefits appear to outweigh any risks for both age groups. The FDA will consider that recommendation in making a final decision by early August.

Tens of thousands of Americans die from influenza every year, and older adults are among the most vulnerable. There are various types of flu vaccines already available in the U.S., including three specifically recommended for people 65 and older. But vaccines made with the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology are faster to manufacture than other types — something experts say might help if the shape-shifting flu virus mutates in a way that requires suddenly brewing new doses to match.

Eager to work, teens find a frustrating summer job search

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaelyn Chester will wait your tables or stock your shelves. She’ll wash your dishes or scrub your toilets. If only someone would give the 17-year-old a chance.

“I’ve been looking everywhere,” says Chester, an A+ student, high school basketball star and aspiring engineer who has blanketed her community with dozens of applications. “I’m not unemployed because I’m incompetent. I’m unemployed because nobody’s hiring.”

The summer job, a rite-of-passage for generations of American teenagers, isn’t so easy to come by.

About one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. were employed last summer, federal data show, down from a peak of about 60% in the late 1970s. Experts’ pessimistic forecasts are combining with reports from frustrated jobless young people around the country to form a seasonal outlook far from bathed in sunshine.

Radon in Newfoundland public housing a reminder of urgent national problem: experts

ST. JOHN'S - The Newfoundland and Labrador government recently found hazardous levels of a cancer-causing gas in some of its public housing units, prompting some experts to call for mandatory testing across the country.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corp. tested for radon in 172 of its housing units as part of a pilot program with Health Canada and found 23 had levels exceeding federal health guidelines and needing remediation, a spokesperson said.

The public housing authority included some of those test results in a post to the provincial procurement website last month, looking for tenders from contractors that could install mitigation systems.

Kelley Bush, manager of Health Canada's national radon outreach program, applauded Newfoundland and Labrador's efforts and said provinces are stepping up to test public housing for the deadly, odourless gas. But she said there is more work to be done.

Poll finds NDP much more popular than when elected

Support for Premier Wab Kinew and the New Democratic Party remains steady, while Obby Khan and the Progressive Conservative official Opposition are heading into the summer on a bit of a backslide, new polling results show.

Probe Research’s latest omnibus poll for June shows overall support for the NDP remains steady at 55 per cent, while the Tories have slipped to 32 per cent support — starting the legislature’s summer break in a slightly weaker position than when the last session began in March.

The results reflect the ongoing honeymoon for the New Democrats, who took power in October 2023 with 45 per cent support and have surged in popularity over more than two years. The Tories, meanwhile, entered the election cycle with 42 per cent support and have lost ground every step of the way since.

“We keep watching these numbers, wondering when the (NDP) bubble might burst — because it has to burst at some point, that’s politics — but it just doesn’t seem to happen. They seem to be just riding this incredible wave of political capital,” Probe Research partner Mary Agnes Welch said Wednesday.

An ancient oak tree said to have sheltered legendary Robin Hood has died

LONDON (AP) — A massive ancient oak tree linked to the legend of Robin Hood may have been loved to death.

The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is believed to have died after it didn’t sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said Thursday.

Visitors over the past two centuries who viewed the tree's gnarled limbs and sprawling canopy in Nottingham compressed the soil, making it difficult for rain to reach its roots, the conservation group said.

The forest has been under threat for years and the tree had been rumored to have died in the past — only to have the group confirm it was still alive.

Inaugural trail summit looks to forge new paths across Canada

In Manitoba, thousands of kilometres of trails wind through a range of landscapes, including prairie, forest, sand dunes and provincial parks, passing through communities and campgrounds.

And behind every stretch is significant work to keep them maintained and accessible.

Across the country, trails are under growing pressure from climate change, aging infrastructure, increased use and uncertain funding — pressures that inspired trail leaders, advocates, researchers and policymakers from 10 provinces and two territories to gather in Winnipeg this week for the first Canadian Trail Summit.

Hosted by Trans Canada Trail, the national charity that stewards Canada’s 28,000‑kilometre trail system, the four‑day summit features keynote talks, technical workshops, field trips and sessions on conservation, accessibility, tourism and innovation.

Potash ‘test shipment’ planned for Churchill

The owner of Manitoba’s sole potash mine plans to send its first shipment to Europe via the Port of Churchill this fall.

Upwards of 200 tonnes of potash will travel to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, said Daymon Guillas, president of the Potash Agri Development Corporation of Manitoba (PADCOM).

From there, it’ll be taken to a client in France.

“This is a test shipment,” said Guillas, who declined to give the customer’s name.

WeCook meals service expands to Winnipeg

The company sells ready-to-eat meals, from small to family portions.

Mayor’s cabinet signs off on proposed 110-acre neighbourhood on Dugald Road

A major development proposes to create nearly 3,000 homes, ample commercial space and a possible school at a mostly vacant industrial park.

The Waters Urban Village project would transform 110 acres (44.5 hectares) of employment and industrial land at 1390 and 1470 Dugald Road in the St. Boniface Industrial Park by creating 2,946 residential units, a commercial town centre, a central park and six business park buildings, pending final city council approval.

The largest high-rise residential buildings would be close to key Winnipeg Transit routes.

The substantial addition of infill homes and businesses fits well with the city’s goals to make use of existing infrastructure, said a proponent of the project.

MPs urge action to undercut ‘manosphere’ by tackling anti-women ideology

OTTAWA - MPs are calling on the government to tackle the rise of antifeminist ideology by funding programs that undercut the "manosphere" of online influencers who blame women for men's problems.

The House of Commons status of women committee tabled a report Tuesday warning "antifeminist ideologies are becoming increasingly prominent in Canada and internationally."

The committee says boys and young men who are isolated or struggling to find their place in society are being presented with extreme content online that glorifies dominating and dehumanizing women and amplifies gender-based violence.

At a news conference on Parliament Hill, Conservative MP Dominique Vien, the committee's chair, told reporters witnesses who spoke to the committee struggled to identify a single reason for the rise in antifeminism.

Ottawa’s new surveillance pricing rules not likely to take effect before 2028

OTTAWA - The federal government wants to be "super careful" as it tackles surveillance pricing, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said after tabling the government's new privacy bill.

Under the plan outlined by Solomon, those rules on surveillance pricing are unlikely to be in place before 2028.

"It's very easy to say just ban using personal information to give personal pricing, because we have to be super careful that we don't want to penalize people who are members of a rewards program," Solomon said Monday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The government introduced the bill Monday — its third attempt to update decades-old privacy laws covering the private sector.

Liberal government tables new First Nations drinking water legislation

New legislation tabled by the government on Tuesday will create a legislative framework to protect drinking water in First Nations communities, Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said.

Ebola stretches weakened global aid system

The WHO has declared the current outbreak an international public health emergency.

Alberta separatists can’t see economic future through their blinding rage

It would be easy to dismiss the threat of Alberta separation as the delusions of a misguided and greedy minority. Easy because the concept does not have much traction.

Opinion polls show that a solid majority of Albertans do not want to leave Canada. Yes, more than 300,000 of the province’s voting-age citizens signed a petition demanding a referendum seeking a departure from the federation. But more than 400,000 other Albertans signed a petition telling the separatists to get stuffed.

That is not a good excuse to ignore what is happening in Alberta. It’s a serious threat but right now, it’s easy to ignore because it’s being pursued by people who are decidedly unserious.

The demands uttered by Alberta separatists are not designed to give its citizens more fairness and equality within the federation; this is about getting more from Canada than any other province has a right to expect.

CRTC gives Bell and Telus until Wednesday to drop fees or risk compliance actions

The CRTC has again issued warnings to Bell Canada and Telus Corp. over recently introduced fees the regulator says could be in violation of its new policy prohibiting telecoms from charging customers when they activate, change or cancel plans.

A rare first edition of ‘Wuthering Heights’ complete with spelling mistakes is up for auction

LONDON (AP) — A rare first-edition copy of “ Wuthering Heights,” complete with spelling mistakes, is up for auction for the first time in more than a century, as Emily Brontë’s tragic, tempestuous romance gains new fans through a big-screen adaptation.

Christie’s auction house said Monday that it's the first copy of the novel in the publisher’s original cloth binding to be auctioned since 1908. Only about 250 copies of the first edition were printed, and this one has been in a private library since shortly after its publication in 1847.

“The vast majority of surviving copies were rebound for collectors or libraries, meaning original cloth examples are now extremely scarce,” said Christie’s books and manuscripts specialist Mark Wiltshire.

Being sold along with a copy of sister Anne Brontë’s “Agnes Grey,” it’s expected to sell for between 400,000 pounds and 600,000 pounds ($540,000 and $800,000) at a June 30 auction in London. Both books carry the male pen names the sisters adopted to get published: Ellis Bell for Emily and Acton Bell for Anne.

Winnipeg retiree gives new life to repurposed fabrics with volunteer sewing network

An old Bell MTS utility building in St. Boniface has been turned into the unofficial headquarters for a massive volunteer sewing network.

Sewers, knitters and crocheters faithfully turn up to transform textiles into practical items that serve varied and important purposes.

The person holding the keys to the building — and the whole operation — is Jo-Anne Pelzer.

The 71-year-old retired from the phone company in 2010 and has been volunteering ever since, using her sewing skills to create everything from mini ballgowns for teddy bears to dog beds for recovering pups in spay and neuter clinics.