Harvard has long been the world’s top college. Trump’s sanction puts its allure at risk

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — For students around the world, an acceptance letter to Harvard University has represented the pinnacle of achievement, offering a spot among the elite at a campus that produces Nobel Prize winners, captains of industry and global leaders.

That allure is now in jeopardy. In its intensifying fight with the White House, Harvard was dealt its heaviest blow yet on Thursday, when the government blocked the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students. The move threatens to undermine Harvard’s stature, revenue and appeal among top scholars globally.

Even more than the government’s $2.6 billion in research cuts, the administration's action represents an existential threat for Harvard. The school summed it up in a lawsuit seeking to block the action: “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”

Within hours of the decision, the consequences started becoming clear. Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth, who just finished her first year in a Harvard graduate program, is waiting to find out if she can return next year, the palace said. The Chinese government publicly questioned whether Harvard’s international standing will endure.

The Cannes Film Festival is over. Here’s some key things that happened

CANNES, France (AP) — This year's Cannes Film Festival is over, ending in dramatic fashion with a power outage ahead of the closing ceremony that bestowed the Palme d'Or trophy to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's film, “It Was Just an Accident.”

This year's festival included a strong slate as Cannes has become increasingly important to the Oscars’ best picture hopefuls. As the festival drew to close Saturday, it was clear that filmmakers are reckoning with geopolitical doom, climate change and other calamities that closely resemble current events.

This year's festival was an attention-grabbing affair since its start — from new rules for its red carpets, nerves about potential U.S. tariffs and the return of Tom Cruise.

Even in a normal year, Cannes is a lot to keep up with. Here's a handy guide of what's happened so far, what's left and what it may mean.

Lawyer challenging Trump’s trade war says tariffs are ‘illegal and abusive’

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump's global trade war is an "illegal and abusive" use of power, said a lawyer representing small businesses who are challenging the tariffs.

George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, along with the Liberty Justice Center, represents five American small businesses who had a hearing before the U.S. Court of International Trade last week in an effort to block Trump's sweeping "reciprocal" tariff agenda.

"He's sort of breaking various precedents and doing things which are highly illegal and obviously our contention is that this is highly illegal," Somin said in an interview Thursday.

The president is facing at least seven lawsuits that argue Trump has acted beyond his powers by wielding tariffs through the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977.

Venezuelan workers at Disney put on leave from jobs after losing protective status

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Almost four dozen Venezuelan workers who had temporary protected status have been put on leave by Disney after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip them of legal protections.

The move was made to make sure that the employees were not in violation of the law, Disney said in a statement Friday.

The 45 workers across the company who were put on leave will continue to get benefits.

“We are committed to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees who may be navigating changing immigration policies and how they could impact them or their families,” the statement said.

What issues to watch as ‘big, beautiful bill’ moves to the Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans were jubilant after muscling through President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and immigration package by a single vote. But across the Capitol, senators were more cautious.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune can afford to lose three Republican senators and still pass the bill, and there are more than that, right now, who have problems with it. Like the House, he will have to balance the concerns from moderate and conservative members of his conference.

Republicans’ aspirational deadline is July 4, ahead of a potential debt default. Thune said groups of senators had already been meeting to discuss the legislation and that they would want to take some time to review it. “And then we’ll put our stamp on it,” he said.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Thune said. “What does it take to get to 51?”

Kashmir tourism bears the brunt after tourist massacre and India-Pakistan military strikes

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — There are hardly any tourists in the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir. Most of the hotels and ornate pinewood houseboats are empty. Resorts in the snowclad mountains have fallen silent. Hundreds of cabs are parked and idle.

It’s the fallout of last month’s gun massacre that left 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir followed by tit-for-tat military strikes by India and Pakistan, bringing the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of their third war over the region.

“There might be some tourist arrivals, but it counts almost negligible. It is almost a zero footfall right now,” said Yaseen Tuman, who operates multiple houseboats in the region’s main city of Srinagar. “There is a haunting silence now.”

Tens of thousands of panicked tourists left Kashmir within days after the rare killings of tourists on April 22 at a picture-perfect meadow in southern resort town of Pahalgam. Following the attack, authorities temporarily closed dozens of tourist resorts in the region, adding to fear and causing occupancy rates to plummet.

Increase in sextortion cases prompts call for legislation to combat predators

The spike in online sextortion cases in Winnipeg has alarmed police and augmented advocates’ calls for Canada to begin regulating social media platforms to help protect children from predators.

‘Special to the world’: Supporters hope to save beloved Drumheller dinosaur

DRUMHELLER - A plan to send Tyra the tyrannosaurus, the popular tourist attraction that towers over the skyline in Drumheller, Alta., into proverbial extinction has sparked demands that she be spared.

The town of 8,400 northeast of Calgary bills itself as the Dinosaur Capital of the World. Home to the famed Royal Tyrrell Museum, the community also has statues of dinosaurs that look like they've crawled out of "The Flintstones" cartoon greeting people on the streets.

There's an extinct reptile riding a motorcycle. A triceratops in a frilly dress sits on a bus bench. Another dinosaur wearing a fireman's hat and holding a hose is poised outside a fire station.

The biggest is Tyra, standing across from the intersection of Gorgosaurus Street and Tyrannosaurus Drive near a visitor information centre. A nearby ice cream stand offers fossils, T-shirts and dino toys.

Lawyer, philanthropist had a fierce sense of social justice

A luminary in human rights advocacy, Canadian lawyer Yude Henteleff was a natural explorer both in his travels and in his daily life. Henteleff lived 97 years with passion and dynamism.

He died Dec. 8, 2024.

Henteleff’s accomplishments and list of awards and accolades began at age 16 when he was elected president of the Jewish Youth Council and then to the youth division of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His activities in the Jewish community were extensive and lifelong.

The father, grandfather and partner lived life to the fullest, propelled by a fierce sense of social justice and belief in “tikkun olam,” a Hebrew phrase meaning “to repair the world.”

Paleontologist makes strides toward understanding the way mosasaurs behaved

Maximilian Scott is a vertebrate paleontologist who focuses on extinct animal behaviour and behavioural evolution. Scott, 27, from Ovid, Mich., is in the last year of his master’s degree at the University of Manitoba studying mosasaurs, an ancient marine lizard that lived in Manitoba during the late-Cretaceous period.

He also offers tutoring in geology, biology, animal behaviour and conservation to people of all ages. You can find him on Instagram.

Our story doesn’t start with the first book that was written, our story starts a long time before that, a long time before the first humans. It’s all one long story.

Humans have only existed for 200,000 years. The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years. Life has been around for three billion years, and complex life has been around for 542 million years.

Bientôt un petit musée pour une grande réouverture

Le musée Pointe-des-Chênes, situé dans le parc des Rédemptoristes dans la petite ville de Sainte-Anne, pourrait renaître de ses cendres plus de 10 ans après avoir été ravagé par un incendie.

Derrière l’église de la petite ville de Sainte-Anne, par-delà le petit pont piéton qui traverse la Seine, près du grand pavillon métis, quatre piquets ont été plantés dans le sol.

“C’est là que l’on coulera la dalle de béton, indique Paul-Guy Lavack, président du Musée Pointe-des-Chênes. Le nouvel emplacement sera un petit peu plus grand, car l’on prévoit de faire un espace à l’entrée et de le rendre accessible pour les fauteuils roulants.”

Pour rappel, le Musée Pointe-des-Chênes se dressait autrefois de l’autre côté du préau, près de la Villa Youville. En mai 2013, un incendie était venu détruire la bâtisse qui ne sera jamais reconstruite. Depuis cet évènement, Paul-Guy Lavack et le Comité du Musée Pointe-des-Chênes n’ont eu de cesse que de chercher un nouvel endroit où exposer les quelque 2,000 artéfacts qui ont été sauvés des flammes. Ces artefacts consistent principalement en des meubles, des tableaux, des livres, des objets du quotidien des pionniers comme des lampes à huile, mais aussi des outils.

Rupert’s Land inhabitants blindsided by Canada’s purchase of their homeland in 1869

When the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) reached an agreement to sell Rupert’s Land to Canada in the spring of 1869, it came as a complete surprise to the people living in what is today Western Canada. They were neither consulted on the proposed annexation nor given any details about how it would affect their lives.

Mountain of Skibicki news coverage has irreparably biased jurors, U.S. researcher tells trial judge

Extensive pre-trial media coverage in the case of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki has biased the jury pool beyond the court’s ability to correct the damage, a judge was told Tuesday.

“We know that when (jurors) have been exposed to a certain amount of pre-trial publicity, even for a well-intentioned juror it is going to be very, very difficult for them to (remain unbiased),” testified Florida University psychology professor Dr. Christine Ruva, who has extensively researched the area of juror bias and its impact on jury decision-making. “It’s unconscious and out of their control.”

Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the May 2022 slayings of three Indigenous women — Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and Marcedes Myran — as well as a fourth as-of-yet unidentified woman killed in March 2022, who Indigenous leaders have given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

A trial jury was selected last week and is set to begin hearing evidence May 8.

36 jours en mer : récit des naufragés qui ont survécu aux hallucinations, à la soif et au désespoir

FASS BOYE, Senegal (AP) — Un mois s’est écoulé lorsque les quatre premiers hommes ont décidé de sauter.

D’innombrables cargos sont passés à côté d’eux, pourtant personne n’est venu à leur secours. Ils n’avaient plus de carburant. La faim et la soif étaient insoutenables. Des dizaines de personnes sont déjà mortes, dont le capitaine.

Le voyage de Fass Boye, petit village de pêche sénégalaise en difficulté économique, jusqu’aux îles Canaries en Espagne, porte d’entrée de l’Union européenne où ils espéraient trouver du travail, était censé durer une semaine. Mais plus d’un mois plus tard, le bateau en bois transportant 101 hommes et garçons s’éloignait de plus en plus de la destination prévue.

Aucune terre n’est en vue. Pourtant, les quatre hommes croient, ou hallucinent, qu’ils peuvent nager jusqu’au rivage. Rester sur le bateau «maudit», pensaient-ils, était une condamnation à mort. Ils ont ramassé des récipients d’eau vides et des planches de bois, tout ce qui pouvait les aider à flotter.

Neo-Nazi group members plotted to kill Free Press reporter

Disturbing details of a plan to kill a Free Press reporter who had infiltrated a white nationalist hate group were revealed for the first time Wednesday.

Even if games go on, MLB lockout could alienate Gen Z

NEW YORK (AP) — Max Scherzer stars in the last video posted to Major League Baseball’s TikTok account before the league locked out the players Thursday morning.

The clip, viewed over 400,000 times, shows the final out from Scherzer's first no-hitter in 2015 with Washington, followed by teammates dousing the three-time Cy Young Award winner with chocolate syrup. Hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd's “Swang” plays in the background.

“Max Scherzer is ... officially a New York Met!!!” the caption reads, celebrating Scherzer's $130 million deal to pitch in Queens.

It could be the last post featuring a big league player sent to the account’s 4.8 million followers for months, a curveball with real consequences for a sport already concerned about courting young fans.

Winnipeg Railway Museum can punch your ticket to the past, but it also needs your help

The Winnipeg Railway Museum, run by the Midwestern Rail Association and the Winnipeg Model Railway Club, is "the coolest indoor museum in Canada in the winter and the hottest ticket in town in summer."

Puncturing the shield of ‘implicit bias’

A leaked internal report this week into the conduct of four Winnipeg firefighters showed evidence of “implicit racial bias” against an Indigenous woman and “racial animus” towards a paramedic (also a person of colour) on a call in October 2020.

The report is clear: identifying the actions of the firefighters put the woman’s health at risk, delayed her journey to the hospital, and showed callous disregard for her safety. One firefighter riding in the ambulance refused to help the paramedic, forcing the injured woman to hold the dressing to the stab wound on her own neck.

Later, one of them called it: “Just another call in the North End.”

According to the report, it was part of “retaliation” against the paramedic, who previously alleged racist conduct by members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service — including one of the firefighters involved, who called him a “sand n-----.”

Claims of Indigenous ancestry by non-Indigenous Canadians on the rise

Writing about identity politics is fraught with political landmines. People tend to be highly sensitive to any challenge to how they identify themselves. It’s personal.

It is therefore intriguing that author Darryl Leroux has walked purposely right into the minefield. It’s political.

In Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, Leroux describes the obsessive search by some heretofore non-Indigenous Canadians for long-ago Indigenous ancestors who can justify them identifying as Métis. According to Leroux, an associate professor of social justice and community studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, the popularity of genealogical websites and online forums has created communities where race-shifters can organize. The motive, he warns, is not benign.

Leroux makes it clear that he is not talking about people who are seeking to reunite with their kin after being forcibly disconnected from their Indigenous identity through Indian residential schools, the Sixties Scoop or Indian Act policies.

Justice system unfairly punishes and rewards

Almost half of the people in Manitoba agree there is a problem with the Canadian justice system when it comes to treatment of Indigenous peoples, according to a recent report in the Winnipeg Free Press (”Manitobans divided on justice system,” April 16, 2018). Like many problems, it’s complex and the way to resolution starts with understanding the many issues.

Here at the John Howard Society, we work with men in conflict with the law, and the vast majority of the people we work with are Indigenous. We see first-hand that the system doesn’t treat everyone fairly for at least three reasons: economic, cultural and prejudicial.

High rates of unemployment and an inability to secure stable housing lead to greater rates of incarceration for those awaiting trial. When a person is charged with a crime, they are often released on their own recognizance. But, if they can’t provide an address for where they will live, they are more likely to be taken into custody. And once someone is in custody, it’s much harder to get out.

By this point, you need a lawyer to represent you at a bail hearing, you still need an address where you will live and there is a legal principle that the accused has to be able to assist in their own defence. I have seen a homeless individual held in custody for almost three weeks for shoplifting less than five dollars’ worth of merchandise, unable to get bail or go to trial because he could not properly instruct his lawyer due to addictions and mental-health issues.

À la pêche aux entreprises

Alt Hotel, la boulangerie Le Croissant, l’Épi de blé, Thermëa Spa. Qu’ont ces lieux de Winnipeg en commun? Ce sont des compagnies nées dans d’autres contrées francophones, qui ont posé leur valise dans la capitale manitobaine. Entreprises familiales ou grosses sociétés, toutes ont été “séduites” par Mariette Mulaire et son équipe pour venir s’installer dans la province.

Pour Mulaire, le premier défi est souvent de faire connaître le Manitoba en dehors du Canada. “Vous venez d’où?””De Winnipeg.” “C’est où, ça?” “Au Canada.” “Ah, au Québec?” “Pas tout à fait…”

La présidente-directrice générale du WTC a l’habitude d’avoir ce type d’échanges, notamment quand elle se déplace en France pour des forums économiques. “Pour les entreprises, le Manitoba est une alternative qui est mal connue, ou méconnue. Il faut éduquer les gens.”

À l’origine, il y avait l’Agence nationale et internationale du Manitoba (ANIM). Née en 2007, cet organisme avait pour but “d’utiliser le bilinguisme au Manitoba pour aller chercher les marchés francophones.” Mulaire en était la PDG. Elle travaillait de paire avec Michel Simard et Annie Girard pour attirer des investisseurs dans la province, ainsi qu’avec Brigitte Léger dans le dossier de l’immigration économique francophone.