Grade 7 students learn about environment in Seine River cleanup

On a rainy Wednesday morning, Grade 7 students from École Lacerte traded their classroom desks for rubber boots as they headed out along the Seine River to help plant native shrubs, test water quality, and clean up the riverbank.

JJ Swidersky, one of about 40 students taking part in the work, says protecting the environment is important to him and his classmates.

“Planting the trees, planting the shrubs,” Swidersky said when asked about his favourite part of the effort. “Just trying to keep the river clean, trying to keep it as clean as we possibly can.”

The planting Swidersky is referring to is part of the Niakwa Trail Rain Garden, which is located next to the St. Anne’s Superstore.

Province providing funds for Indigenous-led response team helping with drug crisis

An Indigenous-led response team known for mobilizing quickly in missing persons and human trafficking cases is being deployed to help tackle Winnipeg’s escalating overdose crisis.

The province is funding Red Response Team to patrol overdose hot spots across the city, relying on workers with lived experience to connect vulnerable people with supports and intervene before emergencies turn fatal.

The funding is part of a $6.8-million package announced Tuesday aimed at addressing a crisis that is claiming dozens of lives each month and placing immense strain on front-line services.

“We’re trying to assist in taking care of (these overdose calls) with a community-based response rather than over-utilizing the health-care system and emergency response system,” a member of the group, who is not being identified, said Wednesday.

Websites suggest conspiracies fed accused Montreal gunman’s ‘buffet extremism’

Online activity suggests accused Montreal shooter Seth Hatfield watched videos about weapons, the outdoors and a tangle of conspiracy theories and grievances.

However, experts warn against drawing conclusions about the gunman. They also urge people to stop sharing online images of Monday's shooting outside a Montreal hotel.

Police said two officers were shot — Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, was killed along with a bystander, Michel Mizrahi, 68, and the shooter died in the crossfire.

The coroner identified the dead suspect as 25-year-old Seth Hatfield from Lethbridge, Alta.

FACT FOCUS: Norway brought its own food to the World Cup. But not because it distrusts US products

As Norway excels in its first World Cup appearance since 1998, false claims about what the team is eating are also grabbing attention online.

The allegations focus on the quality of American food — more specifically, that the Norwegians distrust it so much that they brought food from home to avoid eating it. Norway's team is based in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the duration of the 2026 tournament, which is being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

It's true that the team shipped certain products from Norway for the World Cup, but the reason has nothing to do with concerns about quality.

Here's a closer look at the facts.

A giraffe named Gracie escaped in Texas. No one can seem to find her

Gracie the giraffe has been missing from her Texas home for nearly two weeks, despite helicopter searches, a few sightings, and a $5,000 reward.

Nova Scotia launches three-year plan to expand its $2.2-billion seafood industry

HALIFAX - The Nova Scotia government has announced a three-year strategy aimed at growing the province’s $2.2-billion seafood industry as it tries to cope with with rising costs, labour shortages and global trade challenges.

Provincial Fisheries Minister Kent Smith said Wednesday that $1.5 million will be set aside this year to establish an innovation hub for applied research.

As well, the strategy calls for expanding the aquaculture sector, providing support for product diversification and offering up to $4 million over three years to diversify markets, among other initiatives.

The strategy was developed with input from industry representatives, said Smith, who made the announcement at Sea Star Seafoods Ltd. in Clark’s Harbour, N.S., a lobster fishing community near the province's southwestern tip.

Ontario town to remove Frank Stronach’s name from rec centre after conviction

The mayor of a town north of Toronto says Frank Stronach's name will be removed from a recreation centre after the Canadian billionaire was found guilty of sexual assault last week.

Tom Mrakas, the mayor of Aurora, Ont, says the town will begin the process of finding a new naming rights partner for the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex.

The east-end community centre, which includes ice rinks, pools and a gym, is now listed as the Aurora Recreation Complex on the municipality's website.

In a Facebook post, Mrakas condemned sexual violence and said the decision to drop the businessman's name came after discussions with Magna, the auto parts giant Stronach founded in the 1950s.

Red River Co-op to open grocery store, pharmacy at Portage Place redevelopment

A Red River Co-op full service grocery store and pharmacy — “one of the missing pieces in the puzzle of downtown” — will be an anchor in the massive redevelopment of the former Portage Place mall.

True North Real Estate Development announced Wednesday the downtown location will include a 22,500-square-foot food store and a 6,500-sq.-ft. pharmacy.

“Red River Co-op was founded nearly 90 years ago on the belief that people working together can create stronger communities. Our investment in the Portage Place redevelopment reflects that same belief today,” Red River Co-op CEO Craig Gilpin said in a news release.

“This project is about more than building a food store and pharmacy, it is about bringing essential services back to the heart of our city, investing locally and helping create a downtown Winnipeg that future generations will be proud to call their own.”

South African civil groups warn of dire impact as US phases out HIV program funding

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Civil society organizations in South Africa said Wednesday that adolescent girls and women are among the first vulnerable groups to feel the pinch of U.S. foreign aid cuts as the Trump administration phases out its more than $400 million support annually for the country’s HIV programs.

The U.S. State Department has said that it would “begin a phased drawdown” of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a program that has supported South Africa’s battle against HIV and AIDS for the last 20 years and is widely credited with saving more than 20 million lives over that period.

The phasing out of most programs is expected to be completed by the end of September, with critical personnel support continuing through March next year, according to the U.S. State Department.

South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV, with approximately 8 million people, or about 12.7 % of its 63 million population.

Hamilton data centre pause survives first council vote, exemption rejected

A proposed citywide moratorium on data centres in Hamilton survived its first test before city council on Wednesday, as local legislators rejected a bid to exempt smaller facilities.

Council voted 15-1 to advance the proposed moratorium, with a final vote expected at next month's council meeting.

The moratorium is framed as a chance for the city to develop guardrails around data centres powering the artificial intelligence boom.

The moratorium's sponsor, Coun. Nrinder Nann, said the plan would help ensure future data centre decisions prioritize public health, transparency and community-defined benefits over rapid industrial expansion.

Swiss collector wants thousands of Indigenous artifacts returned to communities

WINNIPEG - A Swiss collector who has amassed thousands of Indigenous artifacts said he is eager to have his collection repatriated back to the communities it came from.

Vincent Escriba has accumulated 3,500 ceremonial and traditional items, including cradleboards, sacred pipes and firearms, believed to be associated with the period of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The 67-year-old previously housed the items in a museum he ran in Switzerland that closed last year after Escriba decided to retire.

Escriba has been speaking with a group of First Nations leaders and advocates in Manitoba about transferring the collection to Indigenous groups in the United States and Canada for a cost.

Dior moves Paris men’s show earlier as heat wave grips city

PARIS (AP) — Dior moved its men’s Paris Fashion Week show to 9 a.m. Wednesday to avoid the extreme heat sweeping much of Western Europe. It still was not early enough.

Guests arrived at the Musée Nissim de Camondo as a heat wave gripped Paris. Cold towels, strawberries and parasols were offered at the door.

Inside the mansion, where Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson showed his latest Dior men’s collection, the temperature rose quickly. Some guests appeared overcome and water was in limited supply.

The front row still delivered the expected star power. LaKeith Stanfield, Little Simz, James Marsden, Drew Starkey, Mike Faist, 070 Shake, Alexander Ludwig and Sam Nivola were among those at the show.

Indigenous communities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to receive smoke detectors

FREDERICTON - Tammy Nash says a smoke detector likely saved her son's life when their family home caught fire in 2010 on the  Sitansisk First Nation in central New Brunswick.

Nash, director of the local Maqiyahtimok Centre, says her then 14-year-old son was asleep on the couch when the fire broke out. The smoke detector's alarm woke him up and he escaped before their house burned to the ground.

Nash was on hand in Fredericton on Tuesday when three fire safety organizations came together to announce the distribution of hundreds of free smoke detectors to her community near Fredericton and two other First Nations in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Kidde, a U.S. firm that sells fire safety equipment, is donating about $500,000 worth worth of smoke detectors.

Bank of Canada officials seemed unfazed by the surprise economic decline in Q1

OTTAWA - Officials at the Bank of Canada were seemingly unfazed by economic weakness to start the year as they debated where to take the policy interest rate earlier this month.

The central bank today released a summary of the deliberations that led its governing council to hold the policy rate steady at 2.25 per cent for a fifth consecutive time on June 10.

Officials acknowledged in the summary that they were surprised the Canadian economy posted a slight contraction in the first quarter of the year. The Bank of Canada had forecast a 1.5 per cent annualized growth rate in real gross domestic product for the first three months of 2026.

But looking through some recent volatile data, governing council agreed that not a lot had changed in the economy since its decision in April.

Speeding spiked in Toronto after province pulled speed cameras: report

TORONTO - A new report shows Toronto has seen a dramatic spike in speeding in the months since the Ontario government scrapped automated speed enforcement cameras.

The report, which Toronto city council is set to consider at its meeting this week, shows the percentage of drivers travelling at least 16 kilometres per hour over the posted limit on some streets surged over 400 per cent after the cameras were removed last November.

Vehicle speeds increased at 101 of 104 locations with comparable before-and-after data, and the proportion of vehicles travelling 11 km/h or more over the posted limit increased from two per cent to 8.1 per cent, the report shows.

The increase in speeding was "generally more prominent" on streets with a posted limit of 30 km/h, it says.

Homes under $500,000 account for growing proportion of Ontario real estate: report

PICKERING - A new report says homes valued under $500,000 are taking up a bigger share of Ontario's real estate landscape, led by a shift in the condominium market.

New data released by the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. showed those lower-valued homes now account for nearly 24 per cent of Ontario's real estate market, up from 17 per cent in 2022.

Despite that improvement, which MPAC said signals "a rebalancing in the housing market," the report said the share of homes priced below $500,000 is still well below that of a decade ago when they made up 67 per cent.

"The past decade has reshaped Ontario's housing market, and while prices remain elevated, there have been corrections from peak conditions," said the organization's chief assessor and data officer Greg Martino in a news release.

Charlie Brown’s longtime pen pal is finally revealed in new Apple TV ‘Peanuts’ movie

Charlie Brown began writing to a pen pal not long after the comic strip “Peanuts” debuted in newspapers back in 1950. No one has gotten a look at whoever was on the other end of his letters — until now.

UN-commissioned experts accuse Israel of targeting Gaza children, repeat genocide claim

JERUSALEM (AP) — A team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations accused Israel of deliberately shooting children in Gaza and repeated its accusation that Israel has committed genocide in the territory.

Israel vociferously denies claims that it committed genocide during its 2 1/2 year war in Gaza.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, an investigative body that operates under the U.N. Human Rights Council, said in its report Tuesday that roughly 30% of the Palestinians killed from October 2023 to October 2025 — more than 20,000 in total — were children. More children are believed to be missing or buried in unmarked graves.

Israel has denied deliberately targeting civilians and pushed back on accusations, including from rights groups, that it committed genocide in Gaza. Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report a “libelous sham” and said the claims included hadn’t been verified. It also criticized the commission as “a fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth.”

AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that

As the world tries to curb human-caused climate change and not run dry of water, every online query is increasing our environmental footprint and exacerbating the problem.