The road back to respectability proving to be a long one for Toronto FC

TORONTO - A record 6-1 win at rival CF Montreal last time out and the possible return of captain Jonathan Osorio from injury for Saturday's visit by Nashville SC offer hope for beleaguered Toronto FC fans.

But the road back to respectability is proving to be a long one for Toronto (3-7-4).

Saturday's game is the 600th regular-season outing for the franchise, which has compiled a 180-264-155 record since entering Major League Soccer in 2007. Eighty-five of those wins came between 2015 and 2020, when Toronto made the playoffs five out of the six seasons — its only post-season appearances to date.

Toronto reached the MLS Cup final in 2016, '17 and '19, hoisting the trophy in 2017 when it also won the Canadian Championship and Supporters' Shield (for the best regular-season record).

Hot diggity dog! Wienermobiles put on riveting race in Wienie 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Give the Borg-Wiener Trophy at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to the Wienermobile affectionately known as Slaw Dog.

In a down-to-the-wire race among the six iconic Wienermobiles that serve as goodwill ambassadors for Oscar Mayer, the hot dog-on-wheels representing the Southeast proved to be the big dog on Carb Day ahead of Sunday's running of the Indianapolis 500.

It made a dramatic pass of the Wienermobile repping Chicago at the finish line to win the inaugural Wienie 500 on Friday.

The margin was about a half a bun.

Justice Department reaches deal to allow Boeing to avoid prosecution over 737 Max crashes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has reached a deal with Boeing that will allow the airplane giant to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed and killed 346 people, according to court papers filed Friday.

Under the “agreement in principle,” which still needs to be finalized, Boeing would pay or invest more than $1.1 billion, including an additional $445 million for the crash victims’ families, the Justice Department said.

In return, the department has agreed to dismiss the fraud charge against Boeing, allowing the manufacturer to avoid a possible criminal conviction that could have jeopardized the company's status as a federal contractor, according to experts.

“Ultimately, in applying the facts, the law, and Department policy, we are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.

Cohere asks U.S. court to toss complaint from media alleging copyright infringement

TORONTO - Cohere is asking a U.S. court to throw out complaints from media outlets that have accused the artificial intelligence company of infringing on their copyright.

In a dismissal motion filed in a New York court on Thursday, Cohere accused publishers including the Toronto Star, Condé Nast, McClatchy, Forbes Media and Guardian News of deliberately using its software to "manufacture a case."

The Toronto-based company said the outlets must have "stylized" prompts they entered into Cohere's software to elicit portions of their own work, which sometimes included inaccuracies.

It argued nothing in the complaint filed by the outlets suggests that any real customer has ever used the company's software to infringe on the publisher's copyright.

Trump administration sues 4 New Jersey cities over ‘sanctuary’ policies

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The Trump administration sued four New Jersey cities over their so-called sanctuary city policies aimed at prohibiting police from cooperating with immigration officials, saying the local governments are standing in the way of federal enforcement.

The Justice Department filed the suit Thursday against Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Hoboken in New Jersey federal court. The lawsuit seeks a judgment against the cities and an injunction to halt them from enacting the so-called sanctuary city policies.

“While states and local governments are free to stand aside as the United States performs this important work, they cannot stand in the way,” the suit says.

It's the latest case from Republican President Donald Trump's administration against sanctuary policies. The administration also sued Chicago, Denver, the state of Colorado, and Rochester, New York.

PWHL’s Vancouver expansion team names Cara Gardner Morey first general manager

VANCOUVER - Vancouver's new Professional Women's Hockey League team has named Cara Gardner Morey its first general manager.

The league made the announcement Friday.

"Cara brings exceptional experience at all levels of the game, a deep understanding of player development, and an unwavering passion for advancing women’s sports,” Jayna Hefford, the PWHL's executive vice president of hockey operations, said in a release.

"Cara becoming general manager of PWHL Vancouver is a powerful addition to our league.”

Man gets 10 years for trying to carjack car with 2 members of Justice Sotomayor’s security detail

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to carjack a car occupied by two U.S. Marshals Service deputies who were members of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s security detail.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in handing down the sentence Thursday, also ordered Kentrell Flowers to have five years of supervised release after his prison term.

Flowers pleaded guilty in February to using a firearm during a crime of violence.

Around 1 a.m. on July 5, 2024, two deputies dressed in Marshals Service shirts were on duty in an unmarked government car in Washington when Flowers exited a minivan, approached the vehicle and pointed a loaded gun at one of the deputies through a window. The deputy fired four shots at Flowers, hitting him in the mouth.

South Africa police minister says Trump ‘twisted’ facts to push baseless genocide claims

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s top law enforcement official said Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump wrongly claimed that a video he showed in the Oval Office was of burial sites for more than 1,000 white farmers and he “twisted” the facts to push a false narrative about mass killings of white people in his country.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was talking about a video clip that was played during the meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday that showed an aerial view of a rural road with lines of white crosses erected on either side.

“Now this is very bad,” Trump said as he referred to the clip that was part of a longer video that was played in the meeting. “These are burial sites, right here. Burial sites, over a thousand, of white farmers, and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning."

Mchunu said the crosses did not mark graves or burial sites, but were a temporary memorial put up in 2020 to protest the killings of all farmers across South Africa. They were put up during a funeral procession for a white couple who were killed in a robbery on their farm, Mchunu said.

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.