Like mother, like daughter: Sunshine Fund camp experience runs in the family

Peyton Toth is weeks away from graduating from Grade 3 and heading to summer camp for the first time.

And the bubbly outgoing eight-year-old will soon be on her way to Camp Arnes, on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg north of Gimli, thanks to the Sunshine Fund.

Peyton’s mom, Lindsay, said she knows firsthand the type of experience her daughter will get. Three decades ago, when she was eight years old, she went to camp for the first time — at Camp Arnes.

“I wanted her to go to camp so I began looking at the camps out there,” she said. “But I didn’t realize (camping fees) would be that much. It costs $800 for the week.

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.

Politicians held accountable — what about bureaucrats?

The Sio Silica caretaker convention scandal report by Manitoba’s ethics commissioner should be required reading in every public service in Canada.

Your generosity can make a kid’s summer

In a few short weeks, children will be able to trade school books and assignments for the possibility of jumping in a kayak, getting on a horse, or racing down a zip line.

That means it’s also time to help needy families give their kids a camping experience they will never forget.

For the 45th summer, the annual Free Press Sunshine Fund is kicking off with the hope that thousands of generous readers will help children who deserve a break from their studies in an outing that normally would be out of reach financially for their families.

“The Free Press is again counting on our readers to help make the Sunshine Fund a reality for as many children in our province as possible,” Free Press editor Paul Samyn said.

Community gathers to remember couple who died in wildfire

LAC DU BONNET — Mourners wiped away tears and shared fond memories as they paid tribute to Susan and Richard Nowell, the couple who died May 13 as a wildfire ripped through homes on Wendigo Road in this tight-knit community.

There almost weren’t enough seats in the town’s community centre Friday as nearly 700 friends, family, and community members gathered to remember the Nowells at a 90-minute celebration of life. The stage was filled with brightly coloured flowers and a collage of photographs.

Emmett Nowell, the couple’s youngest son, looked at the large crowd and took a deep breath, to steady himself before speaking.

“They made everyone feel so special with their love,” said Emmett, who was the first family member to speak. “I could really stand up here and talk about them forever.”

Ottawa, Manitoba decided jointly to send evacuees to Niagara Falls

The Manitoba government confirmed Friday the decision to send some of the 18,000 wildfire evacuees to southern Ontario was made jointly with the federal government.

“Manitoba, in partnership with Indigenous Services Canada, worked quickly to ensure evacuees secured shelter and lodging in Ontario, much like Manitoba housed over 1,000 evacuees from Wabaseemoong Independent Nations (in northwestern Ontario) in May,” a spokesperson said in an email.

The province said it requested assistance from Ottawa — via Public Safety Canada’s Government Operations Centre — that emphasized the need for federal help to ensure a successful emergency response, including evacuation logistics.

“Support measures remain in place for affected on-reserve and eligible First Nation communities, with resources available for both immediate and long-term recovery,” ISC said in an emailed statement.

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.

Singer-songwriter Kelly Bado’s music imbued with the richness of her culture

Kelly Bado, a keen observer of the world around her, forged a sense of camaraderie with her new city — with its landscape, its history and its people — at The Forks.

Saskatchewan lays charges in wildfires while 1,000 more flee in Manitoba

Prairie wildfires developed on two fronts Friday, as 1,000 more Manitoba residents were forced to flee their homes and Saskatchewan RCMP charged two people with starting blazes.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told a news conference that one charge relates to starting a fire near La Ronge, which has forced 7,000 people from the area.

“The RCMP have informed us that they have now charged a couple of individuals,” Moe said.

An 18-year-old woman from Montreal Lake Cree Nation and a 36-year-old man from Pelican Narrows each face one count of arson, said RCMP.

Georgia detains second opposition leader within days as ruling party faces more protests

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgian police on Friday detained a second opposition leader within days as protests continue in the South Caucasus country against the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Lawyers for Nika Melia, one of the figureheads for Georgia's pro-Western Coalition for Change, said his car was stopped by police on Thursday. Soon after, he was bundled away by a large group of people in civilian clothing.

According to Georgia’s interior ministry, Melia has been detained on charges of verbally insulting a law enforcement officer.

The arrest came a week after that of Zurab Japaridze, another leader of the pro-Western, liberal coalition of parties that support European Union integration and want a restoration of democratic standards.

Hamas says it is still reviewing a US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas said Friday it was still reviewing a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 27 people were killed in new Israeli airstrikes, according to hospital officials.

The ceasefire plan, which has been approved by Israeli officials, won a cool initial reaction Thursday from the militant group. But President Donald Trump said Friday negotiators were nearing a deal.

“They’re very close to an agreement on Gaza, and we’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow,” Trump told reporters in Washington. Late in the evening, asked if he was confident Hamas would approve the deal, he told reporters: “They’re in a big mess. I think they want to get out of it.”

U.S. negotiators have not publicized the terms of the proposal. But a Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March.

Olympic boxing champ Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening to fight for new governing body

Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening to participate in upcoming events with the sport's new governing body.

World Boxing announced mandatory sex testing for all athletes Friday. The governing body specifically mentioned Khelif when announcing the policy, saying the Algerian gold medal winner must be screened before she will be approved to fight at any upcoming events, including the Eindhoven Box Cup next month in the Netherlands.

“The introduction of mandatory testing will be part of a new policy on ‘Sex, Age and Weight’ to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women,” World Boxing wrote in a statement. The fighters' national federations will be responsible for administering the tests and providing the results to World Boxing.

Khelif won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer amid international scrutiny on her and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, another gold medal winner. The previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, disqualified both fighters from its 2023 world championships after claiming they had failed an unspecified eligibility test.

Teen girl found guilty of manslaughter in attack on homeless Toronto man

TORONTO - One of the teen girls accused in the fatal swarming attack on a homeless Toronto man has been found not guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. 

Ontario Superior Court Justice Philip Campbell said it wasn't proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the girl dealt the fatal blow to Kenneth Lee, or had the state of mind required for murder during the 2022 attack.

"This was a manslaughter, and was very close to the most serious example of that offence, but it was not a murder," he said Friday as he delivered the verdict. 

The girl, who was 14 at the time of the attack, had tried to plead guilty to manslaughter at the start of her murder trial, but the Crown rejected that plea. 

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.”

A Palestinian describes 15 minutes of terror trying to get food in the new Gaza distribution system

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Shehada Hijazi woke at dawn. It was his best chance, he thought, to get his hands on a package of food at a new distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of others, equally desperate to feed their hungry families, had the same idea.

By the time Hijazi walked the 7 kilometers (4 miles) to the southern tip of the territory, a militarized zone that has been evacuated of its residents, it was chaos. People pushed and shoved for hours as they restlessly waited outside the site, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, earth berms and checkpoints. When it opened, the crowd charged, rushing toward hundreds of boxes left stacked on the ground on wooden pallets.

Hijazi described what he called 15 minutes of terror Thursday at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the U.N. in feeding Gaza's more than 2 million people.

Israeli soldiers opened fire in an attempt to control the crowd, he and other witnesses said. His 23-year-old cousin was shot in the foot. They quickly abandoned hope of getting any food and ran for their lives.

Colorado’s governor vetoes landmark ban on rent-setting algorithms

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would have made Colorado the first state to ban landlords from using rent-setting algorithms, which many advocates have blamed for driving up housing costs across the country.

RealPage is the target of a federal lawsuit filed last year that accuses the real estate software company of facilitating an illegal scheme to help landlords coordinate to hike rental prices. Eight other states, including Colorado, have joined the Department of Justice's lawsuit, though RealPage has vehemently denied any claims of collusion and has fought to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Critics say RealPage software combines confidential information from each real estate management company in ways that enable landlords to align prices and avoid competition that would otherwise push down rents. RealPage’s clients include huge landlords who collectively oversee millions of units across the U.S.

The Colorado bill, which recently passed the Democratic-led Legislature along party lines, would have prevented the use of such algorithms.

3rd suspect arrested in connection with death of a Super Bowl reporter in New Orleans

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A third person has been charged in connection to the death of a television reporter who had traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl earlier this year.

Christian Anderson, 33, of New Orleans, was arrested for his alleged role in a recurring scheme that police say involved targeting victims, drugging them and robbing them.

Among those alleged victims was Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and anchor for Telemundo based in Kansas City, Missouri. Manzano was found dead Feb. 5 in his hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.

Manzano's death came a year after his wife died in a car accident. The couple leaves behind a toddler daughter.

Nova Scotia NDP says province too secretive, must release environmental racism report

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia’s Opposition NDP called on Premier Tim Houston's government Friday to release a report about the province's long history of environmental racism, saying it’s a matter of accountability.

An eight-member panel was expected to submit its report to Houston's government in December 2023.

Justice Minister Becky Druhan, who is also responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, did not answer Thursday when pressed by reporters to explain why the government is sitting on the report.

Druhan also wouldn’t answer when asked whether she had seen the panel’s recommendations, saying its work predated her appointment as minister.

Bloodhounds hunting ‘Devil in the Ozarks’ fugitive are seen as key part of manhunt

A bloodhound picked up the scent shortly after the “ Devil in the Ozarks ” escaped from a lockup in northern Arkansas. The hound didn't have to go far to begin the hunt — it lives at the prison as part of a specialized unit that uses man's best friend to help track fugitives.

Although the scent of convicted killer Grant Hardin was lost because of heavy rain, experts say that even days after Sunday's escape, the animal's highly developed sense of smell can still pick up a fresh trail.

That’s partly due to about 300 million cells in their nose that supercharges their sense of smell, said Terri Heck, a Bloodhound handler and trainer who works with the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office.

They’ve got wide nostrils to scoop up smells, and their long ears often work to stir up scents as they drag along the ground. Even their drool plays a role, as that wetness wakes up scents, Heck said.

Supreme Court lets Trump end legal protections for 500,000 migrants, exposing more to deportation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday again cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.

The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The decision comes after the court allowed the administration to revoke temporary legal status from about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case.

The court did not explain its reasoning in the brief order, as is typical on its emergency docket. Two justices publicly dissented.

The administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal judge in Boston blocked the administration’s push to end the program. The Justice Department argues that the protections for people fleeing turmoil in their home countries were always meant to be temporary, and the Department of Homeland Security has the power to revoke them without court interference.

Canada international Achini Perera takes to the street for Cricket to Conquer Cancer

TORONTO - Achini Perera gets to tick a few boxes Saturday, playing cricket and helping raise money for a good cause.

The Canadian international cricketer is taking part in the inaugural Cricket to Conquer Cancer, a street cricket fundraiser for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

More than 40 teams will be participating at Celebration Square in suburban Mississauga, Ont., with celebrities including singer Jully Black, former soccer star Dwayne De Rosario and former Raptor Jamaal Magloire and West Indies cricketer Carlos Brathwaite.

Like many taking part, Brathwaite has a personal connection to the cause. His mother is a cancer survivor.

Mother of jailed Egyptian democracy activist hospitalized after resuming hunger strike

LONDON (AP) — The mother of a pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Egypt is seriously ill in a London hospital after resuming a hunger strike aimed at pressing for her son’s release, her family said Friday.

Laila Soueif was admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels.

“A couple of hours ago I thought we were going to lose her,” her daughter, Sanaa Souief, said outside the hospital. “The bottom line is, we’re losing her.”

She added: “(Prime Minister) Keir Starmer needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday, but right now.”