Smith, Alberta Next panel’s first town hall hears support, calls for separation vote

RED DEER - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her hand-picked panel heard from several Albertans Tuesday who argued the only way to get the province a fair deal from Ottawa is to leave confederation.

The event in Red Deer was the first in a series of town halls to address public concerns with the federal government.

Some 450 people showed up to put questions to Smith and the 15 other members of her Alberta Next panel about the grievances inspiring separatist sentiment in the province.

Most of the attendees lauded Smith and the panel's strategies to wrest more control from the federal government, including pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan and creating a provincial police force to replace the RCMP.

BBC Gaza documentary narrated by Hamas official’s son breached editorial guidelines, review says

LONDON (AP) — Britain's media regulator said Monday it will investigate a BBC documentary about children's lives in Gaza, after a review concluded that the narrator's father has Hamas links and the program therefore breached editorial guidelines on accuracy.

The broadcaster removed the program, “Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone,” from its streaming service in February after it emerged that the 13-year-old narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

Ofcom, the media regulator, said that it was launching an investigation under rules that state factual programs must not materially mislead the audience.

That came after a review by the broadcaster found that the independent production company that made the program didn't share the background information regarding the narrator's father with the BBC. It said that the production company, Hoyo Films, bears most responsibility for the failure, though it didn't “intentionally” mislead the BBC.

Musk’s xAI scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it's taking down “inappropriate posts" made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler.

Grok was developed by Musk’s xAI and pitched as alternative to “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini, or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Musk said Friday that Grok has been improved significantly, and users “should notice a difference.”

Since then, Grok has shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism.

What to know about a potential deal to keep TikTok running in US

Less than a month after extending a deadline to ban TikTok for the third time, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday night that, “We pretty much have a deal,” on TikTok — but he did not offer details.

The details and timing of a potential deal are not clear. TikTok did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Monday.

Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman said while TikTok is “reportedly planning” a U.S. version of its app to comply with legal restrictions, the platform — if it launches without the original TikTok algorithm — “risks losing the very personalization that drives user engagement.”

In other words, TikTok just isn't TikTok without its algorithm.

Pray for rain — and plant more trees

As I write this, Saskatchewan is under another air-quality alert as smoke from Alberta and B.C. drift over to cast a shadow on what would typically be a sunny June day.

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.

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.

Ignorance far from bliss, PC leader pleads in effort to leave stench of ’23 campaign behind

Obby Khan wants to make it perfectly clear that the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba’s controversial 2023 election campaign is not an accurate reflection of who he is.

Khan, who became PC party leader in late April, said he continues to struggle to explain his role in that campaign, particularly ads and flyers promoting him as the champion of “parental rights,” a well-established dog whistle for anti-LGBTTQ+ activists in Canada and the United States.

When the idea for the advertisements was first brought up, Khan said no one from the central campaign team ever warned him the term “parental rights” was being used in heavy rotation by anti-LGBTTQ+ activists seeking to remove books from school and public libraries and expunge any reference to sexual orientation or gender in public school settings.

“People will believe me or not believe me on this,” Khan said in an interview on the Niigaan and the Lone Ranger podcast. “(But) I did not know the parental rights was a dog whistle. I was legitimately, like, ‘It makes sense, you want to be involved (in your child’s education). Let’s go, let’s go do this.’ And then, it was afterwards… that I was made aware of (the meaning). People were talking to me about this and it was kind of like one of those ‘a-ha’ moments.”

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.

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.

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.

Trump’s education secretary threatens to pull funding from NY over its Native American mascot ban

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (AP) — New York is discriminating against a school district that refuses to get rid of its Native American chief mascot and could face a Justice Department investigation or risk losing federal funding, President Donald Trump’s top education official said Friday.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, on a visit to Massapequa High School on Long Island, said an investigation by her agency has determined that state education officials violated Title VI of the federal civil rights law by banning the use of Native American mascots and logos statewide.

The department's civil rights office found the state ban is discriminatory because names and mascots derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the “Dutchmen” and the “Huguenots,” are still permitted.

McMahon described Massapequa's chiefs mascot as an “incredible” representation of Native American leadership as she made the announcement backed by dozens of students and local officials in the high school gymnasium.

Quebec tables bill to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers on sale of goods

QUÉBEC - Quebec is moving to lower interprovincial trade barriers, as part of a push by provinces and the federal government to increase domestic trade in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Minister for the Economy Christopher Skeete tabled a bill on Friday to remove all restrictions on the use and sale of products from other provinces and to facilitate labour mobility – with some exceptions.

Skeete told reporters in Quebec City that the bill sends a message the province is ready to drop barriers and stimulate trade between regions.

"If you look at what Quebec is doing today, we're leading the charge," he said. "We have one of the most ambitious bills in the federation right now. It's something we're very proud of and it's something that will have lasting change going forward."

Army Corps analysis finds Great Lakes pipeline tunnel would have sweeping environmental impacts

Building an underground tunnel for an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that stretches across a Great Lakes channel could destroy wetlands and harm bat habitats but would eliminate the chances of a boat anchor rupturing the line and causing a catastrophic spill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday in a long-awaited draft analysis of the proposed project's environmental impacts.

The analysis moves the corps a step closer to approving the tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. The tunnel was proposed in 2018 at a cost of $500 million but has been bogged down by legal challenges. The corps fast-tracked the project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies in January to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting.

A final environmental assessment is expected by autumn, with a permitting decision to follow later this year. The agency initially planned to issue a permitting decision in early 2026.

With that permit in hand, Enbridge would only need permission from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy before it could begin constructing the tunnel. That's far from a given, though.

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.

Chief says infrastructure drive could trigger another Idle No More protest movement

OTTAWA - A First Nations chief is warning that Canada is "staring down the barrel" of another wave of protests like the Idle No More movement if governments pursue "national interest" projects without their input and consent.

Anishinabek Nation Regional Chief Scott McLeod has joined Indigenous leaders from across the country who say they're alarmed by government efforts to accelerate infrastructure development.

The federal government is developing a "national interest" bill to fast-track nation-building projects with a streamlined regulatory approval process as a substitute for reviews under the Impact Assessment Act.

A handful of First Nations leaders told The Canadian Press Friday they were sent a letter Monday outlining the federal government's plans.

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.

Syria’s only female minister says lifting of economic sanctions offers hope for recovery

DAMASCUS (AP) — The lifting of economic sanctions on Syria will allow the government to begin work on daunting tasks that include fighting corruption and bringing millions of refugees home, Hind Kabawat, the minister of social affairs and labor, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Kabawat is the only woman and the only Christian in the 23-member cabinet formed in March to steer the country during a transitional period after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December. Her portfolio will be one of the most important as the country begins rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war.

She said moves by the U.S. and the European Union in the past week to at least temporarily lift most of the sanctions that had been imposed on Syria over decades will allow that work to get started.

Before, she said, “we would talk, we would make plans, but nothing could happen on the ground because sanctions were holding everything up and restricting our work.” With the lifting of sanctions they can now move to “implementation.”

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."

US inflation gauge cools with little sign of tariff impact, so far

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key U.S. inflation gauge slowed last month as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have yet to noticeably push up prices. Spending by Americans slowed despite rising incomes, potentially an early reaction to higher prices on some imported goods.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose just 2.1% in April compared with a year earlier, down from 2.3% in March and the lowest since September. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.5% from a year earlier, below the March figure of 2.7%, and the lowest in more than four years. Economists track core prices because they typically provide a better read on where inflation is headed.

The figures show inflation is still declining from its post-pandemic spike, which reached the highest level in four decades in July 2022. Economists and some business executives have warned that prices will likely head higher as Trump’s widespread tariffs take effect, though the timing and impact of those duties are now in doubt after they were struck down late Wednesday in court.

On a monthly basis, overall prices and core prices both increased just 0.1% from March to April. The cost of big-ticket manufactured goods rose a hefty 0.5%, though that increase was offset by a 0.1 decline in other goods, such as groceries. The cost of services rose just 0.1% from March to April.

Trump says US Steel will keep HQ in Pittsburgh in a sign he’ll approve bid by Japan-based Nippon

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that U.S. Steel will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh as part of what he called a “planned partnership” that seemed to signal that he’ll approve a bid by Japan-based Nippon Steel to make a big investment in the iconic American steelmaker, if not buy it outright.

Still, Trump's statement left it vague as to whether he is approving Nippon Steel's bid after he vowed repeatedly to block the deal to prevent U.S. Steel from being foreign-owned.

More recently, Trump suggested that Nippon Steel would invest in U.S. Steel, not buy it, and one union official suggested Friday that the federal government will have a role in the company's management going forward. But investors seemed to take Trump's statement as a sign that he's approving some sort of merger, sharply pushing up U.S. Steel's shares, and the companies issued approving statements.

Nippon Steel said the partnership is a “game changer — for U.S. Steel and all of its stakeholders, including the American steel industry, and the broader American manufacturing base.” U.S. Steel said it “will remain American, and we will grow bigger and stronger through a partnership with Nippon Steel that brings massive investment, new technologies and thousands of jobs over the next four years."