The RCMP and TikTok

A trend on TikTok has Canadians “challenging” RCMP officers to fake foot pursuits.

Supervised consumption site expected this year will ‘definitely’ open before NDP’s first term ends, addictions minister says

The province will have a supervised consumption site before the next election, Manitoba’s addictions minister promised Friday after unveiling a memorial stone to those who’ve died of drug overdoses.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith told reporters that the government isn’t going to rush the establishment of an overdose prevention site.

“We want to do our due diligence in terms of consulting, making sure that we’re getting it right,” Smith said on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature after an International Overdose Awareness Day rally.

Last month, Smith said the province was “forging ahead” with opening a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg this year. On Friday, she was asked again about an opening date — if it might not be until next year or later in the government’s four-year mandate, which is nearly half over.

Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom

Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they're a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them.

But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously.

“I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions,” said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they’re ready to see it.”

More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don't have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age.

What Americans think about Trump’s handling of crime, according to a new poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — As armed National Guard troops patrol the nation's capital as part of an unprecedented federal takeover of Washington's police department, handling crime is now a relative strength for President Donald Trump, according to the latest AP-NORC poll.

Americans are generally not happy about the Republican president’s handling of issues like immigration and the economy but are more positive about his tough-on-crime approach, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Indeed, the vast majority of Americans, 81%, see crime as a “major problem” in large cities — a concern Trump has seized on as he has deployed the National Guard to the District of Columbia and threatened to expand that model to cities across the country. Despite that perception, data shows that violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low. But Trump’s approach appears to be helping him, at least for the moment: His overall approval rating has increased slightly, from 40% in July to 45% now.

But the poll shows there is less public support for federal takeovers of local police departments, suggesting opinions could shift over the coming weeks or months, depending on how aggressively Trump pursues his threats.

Key things to know about how Elon Musk has boosted hard-right figures in Europe

ROME (AP) — Elon Musk may have tumbled from political grace in Washington, D.C., but as he seeks to build a new political party, his power on X — where he commands the most popular account — remains unchecked.

Musk is a kingmaker on the platform he acquired in 2022 for $44 billion. He has used his influence to cultivate hard-right politicians and insurgent activists across Europe. A retweet or reply from Musk can lead to millions of views and tens of thousands of new followers, according to an Associated Press analysis of public data.

That fact has not been lost on influencers who have tagged Musk persistently, seeking a reply or a retweet. It has also fueled concerns in Europe about foreign meddling -- not from Russia or China, but from the United States.

“Every alarm bell needs to ring,” Christel Schaldemose, a vice president of the European Parliament who works on electoral interference and digital regulation, told AP.

Musk, a social media powerhouse, boosts fortunes of hard-right figures in Europe

ROME (AP) — Hard-right commentators, politicians and activists in Europe have uncovered a secret to expanding their influence: engaging with Elon Musk.

Take the German politician from a party whose own domestic intelligence agency has designated as extremist. Her daily audience on X surged from 230,000 to 2.2 million on days Musk interacted with her posts. She went on to lead her party to its best-ever electoral showing.

Or the anti-immigration activist in Britain, who was banned from Twitter and sentenced to 18 months in prison for contempt of court. Since Musk let him back on the platform in late 2023, he’s mentioned, reposted or replied to the billionaire more than 120 times on X — and gained nearly a million followers.

Even a little-known social-media influencer turned politician from Cyprus has benefited from the Musk effect. Before winning a surprise seat in the European Parliament, where he’s advocated for Musk, the influencer seemed to have one ambition: to hug the world’s richest man. He got his hug — and political endorsements. On days Musk has interacted with his account on X, the man’s audience exploded from just over 300,000 to nearly 10 million views.

Weekend Muslim conference attracts young adults from across Canada

Muslim youth from across Canada gathered in Winnipeg on the weekend for a conference, the first of its kind in the country.

About 60 young adults travelled here for the event, which was sponsored by the Islamic Social Services Association of Winnipeg, to discuss a variety of issues, including legal and civil rights when dealing with the police, gender diversity, finding allies in the fight against Islamophobia and dealing with trauma and mental-health concerns.

Association board member and conference moderator Jamie Carnegie said there was a discussion about understanding how the media reports about Islam, and how to find reliable sources of information online.

“Muslim youth, like other youth, have many sources of information today,” Carnegie said. “Our goal was to help them find trusted sources and to understand what is being reported.”

Tech industry group sues Arkansas over new social media laws

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A tech industry trade group sued Arkansas Friday over two new laws that would place limits on content on social media platforms and would allow parents of children who killed themselves to sue over content on the platforms.

The lawsuit by NetChoice filed in federal court in Fayetteville, Arkansas, comes months after a federal judge struck down a state law requiring parental consent before minors can create new social media accounts. The new laws were signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year.

“Despite the overwhelming consensus that laws like the Social Media Safety Act are unconstitutional, Arkansas elected to respond to this Court’s decision not by repealing the provisions that it held unconstitutional but by instead doubling down on its overreach,” NetChoice said in its lawsuit.

Arkansas is among several states that have been enacting restrictions on social media, prompted by concerns about the impact on children's mental health. NetChoice — whose members include Facebook parent Meta and the social platform X — challenged Arkansas' 2023 age-verification law for social media. A federal judge who initially blocked the law struck it down in March.

Growing up Bombers: Football increasingly a family affair in Winnipeg

Nine months after a serious knee injury put his career in jeopardy, an emotional Chris Streveler stood before reporters, searching for words to describe what it meant to lead the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to a season-opening victory last week.

He could’ve started with what it felt like to suit up in front of 32,343 Blue and Gold supporters again after a gruelling rehab, or spoken about his three touchdown passes and how they helped his team prevail 34-20 over the B.C. Lions.

Instead, the first place the quarterback went was his daughter, Sunny, and how much it meant to him to play in front of her for the first time.

“I think it’s just really different having a daughter now, and after the injury, I just think my perspective is really different on the game, and life in general, and I have more appreciation for these moments,” Streveler told the Free Press earlier this week as the Bombers prepare to meet the Lions in a rematch on Saturday at BC Place.

‘Elio’ is an intergalactic tale — but for Toronto’s Domee Shi, it hits close to home

TORONTO - For Domee Shi, making a movie about an introverted kid getting abducted by aliens felt oddly familiar.

Not because she’s had any close encounters, but because she remembers being a teenager longing to be taken away to a world where her weirdness was understood.

The Toronto native co-directs “Elio,” a Pixar animated sci-fi film about an 11-year-old orphan who yearns to be snatched by extraterrestrials to escape his loneliness — and gets his wish when an interplanetary organization mistakes him for Earth’s ambassador.

“He's this lonely artsy kid who just wants to belong somewhere. I definitely felt that way growing up,” says the Oscar-winning animator behind 2022’s coming-of-age Toronto-set hit “Turning Red.”

Flin Flon’s school year comes to disappointing end for graduating evacuees

Homesick evacuees from the Flin Flon area were dealt another blow Monday when they learned an out-of-control forest fire had cancelled the rest of the school year in northwestern Manitoba.

Graduates far from home ‘grateful’ for honour at school powwow

Grade 12 Tataskweyak Cree Nation student Jonah Wavey was among several wildfire evacuees honoured Monday during a special celebration of Indigenous graduates at the University of Winnipeg’s Duckworth Centre.

The bully is a person in our neighbourhood

A new kid moves into your neighbourhood. A loudmouth, pretty darned full of himself; “I’m the best, the bigly-est, the smartest person ever,” but you’re used to all sorts, even windbags, so you don’t pay him much mind.

And then one day as you’re walking by, he punches you in the face.

Later, he’s all smiles, and says “Let’s let bygones be bygones, we could be the bestest of friends.” And things get better for a bit, though he’s still insufferable.

Not long after, as you’re walking by, he comes up and punches you in the face, saying that you were mean to him.

Manitoba’s regional authorities spent over $35M last year in the ongoing effort to keep health-care workers safe

Last Christmas Eve, a man walked into Thompson General Hospital with a loaded rifle concealed in his clothing.

He moved through the emergency department and other areas — some full of patients — before taking an elevator to the second-floor chapel.

No one knows how long the 33-year-old man was in the facility. He was discovered by a patient who wanted to use the chapel for prayer.

The patient, hearing a commotion behind the locked doors, notified a nurse. Security was nowhere to be found.

Preparing for the future: The importance of estate planning

Canada is currently undergoing the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history, but more than half of us aren’t ready. A recent study by IG Wealth Management (IG) uncovered that 54 per cent of Canadians don’t have an estate plan, leaving them and their loved ones unprepared for carrying out final wishes.

A well-crafted estate plan offers peace of mind by preparing for potential incapacity later in life and ensuring that your assets are distributed according to your wishes. It can also help reduce any tax burden on your beneficiaries. Key components to include in an estate plan include a will, healthcare directive, naming beneficiaries, purchasing life insurance and designating a power of attorney.

“It’s understandable that Canadians want to avoid thinking and speaking about death, but having these difficult conversations now and ensuring that a comprehensive plan is in place will make it easier in the future, both for yourself and your loved ones,” said Christine Van Cauwenberghe, Head of Financial Planning at IG Wealth Management.

Understanding an estate plan

Shiffrin says in essay she feels ‘like myself again’ after recovering from ski racing crash, PTSD

Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finally feels “like myself again” after recovering from a ski racing crash last season and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Shiffrin described in an essay for The Players’ Tribune released Friday the physical and mental hurdles she needed to clear after her serious spill during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 30. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin’s side and caused severe damage to her oblique muscles.

“Everyone knows what it feels like to have a bad cough. But PTSD … it’s not like that,” the 30-year-old from Edwards, Colorado, wrote. “It comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone experiences it in their own way, and no two cases are exactly alike.”

Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS that day in Killington. With the finish line in sight on her final run, she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping over her skis. The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. To this day, she doesn’t know what led to the puncture wound, only that it was "a millimeter from pretty catastrophic,” she told The Associated Press.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers say ex-assistant’s social media posts undercut her rape allegation

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs ' lawyers confronted his rape-alleging former personal assistant on Friday with her social media posts praising the hip-hop mogul as a mentor, “my brother” and “friend for life” for years after she says he assaulted her.

Defense attorney Brian Steel quizzed the woman about some of the dozens of posts she made about Combs in the wake of the alleged rape, portraying the warm messages as contradictory to her claims that working for him was often toxic and terrifying.

The woman, testifying under the pseudonym “Mia" for a second day at Combs’ federal sex trafficking trial, read some of the messages aloud as they were displayed for jurors.

Mia told the jury that the posts were a facade: “Instagram was a place to show how great your life was, even if it was not true.”

Many survivors of Myanmar’s devastating quake in March still live in leaky tents

BANGKOK (AP) — Two months after a deadly earthquake ravaged much of central and northeastern Myanmar, recovery is just inching along, with huge numbers of people living in temporary shelters while facing the heavy rainfall and strong winds of monsoon season.

The 7.7 magnitude March 28 quake caused significant damage to six regions and states, including the capital Naypyitaw and Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. The confirmed death toll from the disaster has reached 3,740, with 5,104 injured, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday.

Bodies are still being found

As the task of rebuilding grinds along, the grim work of recovering the dead is continuing.

Flin Flon, Man., virtually deserted, thousands more evacuees expected as fires rage

WINNIPEG - Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says thousands more evacuees are expected and the city of Flin Flon is virtually deserted as wildfires continue to rage in his province.

Kinew told a Friday news conference that the mayor, councillors, health-care staff and other officials have had to depart Flin Flon.

"The only folks remaining on the ground are firefighters and folks in the office of the fire commissioner and RCMP, who are there to battle the blaze," Kinew said.

"We do expect some very, very challenging conditions in Flin Flon and in the surrounding community."

Residents, advocates say trust issues, strict rules, red tape keep encampments up

Tents, tarps, and makeshift shelters line the beaten path along the Assiniboine River near Balmoral Street in West Broadway — a community hidden in plain sight.

Oilers defenceman Stecher understands Scheifele’s pain: ‘Still affects me day to day’

DALLAS - Edmonton Oilers defenceman Troy Stecher felt for bereaved Mark Scheifele when the Winnipeg Jets centre suited up for an NHL playoff game with the knowledge his father had just died.

Stecher's father Peter died of diabetes complications at age 65 in 2020, shortly before the defenceman entered the NHL's summer playoff bubble with the Vancouver Canucks.

Scheifele scored Winnipeg's lone goal in Saturday's Game 6 loss to the Dallas Stars — Edmonton's opponent in the Western Conference final — after learning his father, Brad, had just died at age 68.

"A lot of respect for him," Stecher said Friday before Game 2 of the conference final.

Paul Reubens tells his story in ‘Pee-wee as Himself.’ Here’s how it came together after his death

Paul Reubens did not tell his director that he was dying.

On July 31, 2023, the news of Reubens' death came as a shock to documentary filmmaker Matt Wolf, who had spent a year trying to convince him to make the ambitious two-part documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” now streaming on HBO Max, and over 40 hours interviewing him on camera.

But in 2023, the project was in danger of falling apart: The two had been at an impasse for a while over the issue of creative control and they’d finally found a way forward. He had one last interview scheduled, set for the first week of August. Then the texts started coming in. Wolf sat there shaking.

They’d spoken about everything — Reubens' childhood, his complicated relationship with fame, his ambitions, his commitment to his alter-ego Pee-wee Herman, his sexuality, his arrest — except the fact that he’d been battling cancer for the past six years. But after the initial shock, a renewed purpose set in.