When Chelsea Smith heard the Backstreet Boys were coming to Toronto, she had a simple message for the five men who soundtracked her childhood.

“Here’s my credit card, take all my money.”

The 35-year-old Vancouver fan wasn’t bluffing. Having already travelled to Las Vegas to see her teenybopper crushes, she’s now preparing to fly across the country for two Toronto concerts, spending roughly $600 on tickets alone.
And she’s hardly the only millennial willing to pay a tidy sum to party like it’s 1999.

Nearly three decades after their commercial peak, the Backstreet Boys have booked a staggering 12 shows at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in 2027, citing “overwhelming demand.” The run doubles the venue’s previous record of six shows, set by Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour in 2024.

While some current major artists are cancelling tours amid sluggish ticket sales, the once-baggy-jeaned quintet is proving nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

“I haven’t seen a Top 40 artist in so many years,” says Smith, a self-described “Y2K-era girlie” who made two trips to the Backstreet Boys’ Las Vegas Sphere residency last year.

She suspects millennials are seeking comfort in the past.

“I feel like during COVID we all retreated back to our nostalgia,” says the customer support professional.

“Times are tough. You’re going back to when it was simpler and just living in that moment.”

When Queen Street went Backstreet

Bill Welychka remembers when the Backstreet Boys could bring downtown Toronto to a standstill.

At the height of the boy-band craze in the late ’90s, the former MuchMusic VJ watched thousands of screaming teenagers descend on the channel’s Queen Street West headquarters, hoping to glimpse the five American heartthrobs.

“There were certain bands where we knew we’d have to hire security, where we would have to close the street down. The Backstreet Boys were certainly one of those bands,” he recalls.

“I think they fed off of that energy and the applause and the screams and the tears.”

The Toronto residency is dubbed “Into the Millennium — Homecoming: Live in Canada,” fittingly so: Canada was the first North American market to embrace the group.

Welychka remembers the frenzy spreading from Europe to Quebec, then across Canada, with MuchMusic putting their videos into heavy rotation.

“We latched on to them very, very early on,” he says.

But the boy-band bubble eventually burst. As tastes shifted in the 2000s, the Backstreet Boys faded from the charts, trading stadium-scale hysteria for more theatres and casinos.

Now, with their original fans approaching middle age, Welychka reckons they’re yearning for a time when their biggest responsibility was keeping a Tamagotchi alive.

“It’s a different day and age now. It’s a lot more frustrating,” says Welychka, citing unemployment and the cost-of-living crisis.

“A lot of people want to get those feelings back you once had. If you’re a 45-year-old woman and screaming and crying, nothing wrong with that.”

Same crushes, bigger allowances

Eleni Papamichelakis knows the feeling. The 39-year-old Durham Region mother drifted away from the Backstreet Boys as adulthood took over, only to rediscover her teenage obsession when she caught their Sphere residency last year. Now she’s taking her 11-year-old daughter to see the group, just as she did at that age in 1998.

Part of the appeal is revisiting a pre-smartphone era, when having fun just required a CD and some friends to dance with.

“The world and, like, life has changed and it’s become so digital and sometimes a little bit impersonal,” says the mortgage agent.

“We lived in such a fun era where we had to kind of entertain ourselves.”

A grown-up bank account helps, though: “We have the money to go and see these concerts in a better seat than when we were younger.”

Not every artist is benefiting from that spending power.

The concert industry has been grappling with so-called “blue dot fever,” named for the unsold seats dotting Ticketmaster seating charts.

This year, Meghan Trainor scrapped her tour, Zayn Malik cancelled his U.S. dates and Post Malone scaled back his stadium run. Though the artists cited varying reasons, the cancellations have fuelled speculation about sluggish ticket sales.

The Backstreet Boys, meanwhile, are once again larger than life at the box office. Their Toronto residency could draw nearly half a million concertgoers, with tickets ranging from around $100 to well over $1,000 for VIP packages.

Nostalgia has always sold concert tickets. But Scott Henderson, a professor of popular culture at Trent University, says it’s becoming an increasingly vital draw for major venues amid an uncertain touring market.

“It’s kind of fuelling the industry in ways it never used to,” Henderson says. “That used to be a separate market, that nostalgia market. Now it’s what big venues like the Rogers Centre are going to have to look for.”

Sentimental millennials, he says, now have deeper pockets and a willingness to splurge on premium tickets.

“That’s your guaranteed audience.”

For Vanessa Capozi, a 39-year-old Montreal-area mother of two, the Backstreet Boys offer something priceless: a break from adulthood.

“Life has taken over right now,” says the special education technician. “Rarely do people my age take time for themselves.”

But when her favourite boy band hits the stage, she gets to be 15 again.

“For those two hours, nothing else exists. I’m just there as me, that teenager, watching the Backstreet Boys.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Stellantis workers in Canada begin voting today on whether to give their union a strike mandate as collective bargaining negotiations remain stalled.

The two-day votes will wrap up tomorrow, with Unifor set to announce results on Monday.

Unifor says potential strike action remains its last resort as it still hopes to reach a negotiated deal with the company.

However, the union remains at loggerheads with the automaker after Stellantis announced plans to sell its idled Brampton, Ont., assembly plant to defence contractor Roshel.

Stellantis says market and trade conditions have hurt the business case for keeping the plant, but that the move to sell could support future jobs there.

More than 2,000 workers were laid off from the Brampton plant when it halted operations in 2023, as Stellantis later moved production of its Jeep Compass from the site to Illinois.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

It’s no secret the long-held Canadian consensus on immigration has fractured — pulled apart by a rapid increase in new arrivals post-pandemic and growing affordability challenges. Now, that fracture is starting to show up at the ballot box.

The Parti Québécois won a minority mandate in Quebec on a platform that included promises of tighter immigration controls, which the party linked to protecting French culture and easing pressure on public services and housing.

And when Albertans head to the polls Monday to vote on whether to hold a future referendum on separation from Canada, they’ll also be answering five separate questions on immigration being pushed by the government of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Those questions include:

— Should the province should have more say over economic immigration?

— Should provincially funded services should be restricted to citizens, permanent residents and those with “Alberta-approved” immigration status?

— Should non-permanent immigrants should be charged a fee for accessing health care and education services?

— Should non-permanent residents should have to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for provincially funded social supports?

— Should voters should have to present proof of citizenship when voting provincially?

Jason Kenney, a former Alberta premier and federal immigration minister, said Canada needs a broader debate on immigration policy based on facts.

“We do need a serious debate on immigration because demography is destiny. There are very few things that are more important,” Kenney told The Canadian Press in an interview.

“But we have to do it in a disciplined and respectful, thoughtful way, as much as possible, based on evidence and data and experience around the world.”

Kenney warned that debates on immigration policy can easily become sidetracked by more extreme political views — by accusations of racism from the far left and by actual racism on the far right.

While Kenney said he doesn’t see the immigration questions on the Alberta ballot as race-based or xenophobic, the Alberta separatist movement itself is something else entirely.

“If you listen to the key separatist leaders like Mitch Sylvestre, who’s the leader of the primary separatist organization, he says that in his republic of Alberta, no one will have citizenship unless you’re born there,” Kenney said.

“So I do think there are some currents on the extreme right of Alberta politics that we should all be concerned about. I do not think that necessarily means we cannot have an adult, grown-up conversation about immigration policy.”

But the immigration questions on the ballot are not sitting well with some diaspora communities in the province.

Lawyer Avnish Nanda, co-founder of the advocacy group Our Alberta Advantage, is campaigning for people to vote “no” on the immigration-related questions.

He said reactions to the questions from Alberta’s cultural communities and from individuals who have considered running for the United Conservative Party have been overwhelmingly negative.

“They view these questions as targeting them, their journey here and the roots they’ve established over the past 60 years,” he said.

“There’s fear, there’s confusion and anger at this government. They think this is not necessary. They think it’s wrapped up in the separatism effort. They think that Danielle Smith is scapegoating them to continue to maintain the support of the more extreme separatist elements that brought her to power.”

Nanda said the referendum is bringing out some ugly undercurrents in Alberta. He said his parents were recently “jeered by a couple of white guys in a car” while out for a walk — something that had never happened to them since coming to Canada in the 1970s.

“There’s a notion that it impacts us all, whether you’re a citizen or not, these questions,” he said. “Because the people who are mobilized around this issue, in support of it, a lot of them don’t differentiate between people who have been here 40 years people who came here a week ago, because we all look the same to them.”

Nanda said if the immigration ballot measures pass on Monday, they could undermine Canada’s multicultural identity, while restricting access to provincial services would make it harder for newcomers to integrate.

Across the country in Quebec, the new minority Parti Québécois government campaigned on a promise to tighten immigration controls. Quebec has maintained far more control over the immigration system than other provinces since 1991.

The PQ immigration platform included, among other things, promises to reduce annual permanent resident admissions from 45,000 to 35,000, to impose a moratorium on permanent immigration from outside Quebec, to prioritize permanent status for temporary residents already in the province, and to tighten the selection criteria for temporary workers.

Catherine Xhardez, a political-science professor at the University of Montreal, said the outgoing Coalition Avenir du Quebec government politicized Quebec’s immigration debate by introducing restrictions the new government now wants to strengthen.

“Before that, they have kind of a consensus between political parties, how migration is good for the economy … good for demography, but even for French language,” she said.

Xhardez said before 2018, Quebec’s main parties generally agreed on the positive role immigration played in strengthening francophone culture by prioritizing certain immigrants.

“But then (the CAQ) broke this consensus between the parties by saying it was too much, too quickly, they needed less,” she said.

Xhardez said there’s a key difference between the Quebec and Alberta immigration debates — the debate in Alberta is built around populist pushback blaming social service shortages on immigrants, while the debate in Quebec puts identity and culture at the forefront.

She added immigration has also become a bargaining chip for the Quebec government in its engagements with Ottawa.

Premier Smith wants a bargaining chip of her own. In a video released Wednesday, Smith encouraged Albertans to vote in favour of the nine immigration and constitutional questions in the referendum to “send Ottawa a message.” She said the goal of one question on the ballot is to “give us the same power as Quebec to recruit economic migrants.”

During a pro-unity campaign stop in Calgary on Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney urged his audience to vote “no to the nine” — repeating a phrase that has become a rallying cry among those opposed to separatism.

Kenney said he’s a “skeptic when it comes to greater provincial control” over a “sensitive” matter like immigration policy. He said provincial governments lack the federal government’s ability to detect fraud and are inclined to focus solely on local issues — not on how immigration affects the national economy.

“In the western provinces, very typically, the permanent residents that they recommend have been low-skilled temporary foreign workers who they’re flipping into permanent residency because the local MLAs get tired of being browbeaten by the Tim Hortons franchise owners,” Kenney said.

Reflecting on his time as Alberta’s premier, he said “certain premiers” told Ottawa after the COVID-19 pandemic that their biggest priority was to increase immigration — despite early evidence of the housing and youth unemployment challenges currently driving the immigration debate.

“When you don’t have social permission to discuss these issues, again, that creates the kind of conditions where popular opinion gets totally detached from elite opinion. And if you want to know what that looks like, look at the politics of Europe today,” Kenney said.

“So if you want to avoid (Alternative für Deutschland), Front National, U.K. Reform-style politics, then yes, we need a proper, open debate about these issues.”

Xhardez, who is originally from Belgium, said the Canadian political scene is very different from Europe and the U.S. — Canada has no mainstream anti-immigrant political party at the federal level. But public feelings about immigration have shifted — and no one knows for certain how that will affect Canada’s politics going forward.

“Canada is maybe not so exceptional, we don’t know. Or maybe it will become exceptional as being just less politicized, but it’s not true that there is still this consensus and strong public support,” Xhardez said.

Nanda said some of the loudest voices opposing the immigration questions in Alberta have been chambers of commerce, which represent businesses that have been struggling to recruit staff.

He said someone in politics needs to champion the idea that immigrants lift up economies, expand the tax base and help to fund social programs and services.

“What they’re experiencing in their communities around affordability is because of failed government policies around investing in education, investing in health care, and the same immigrants that people are scapegoating as their reasons a way to reverse that,” he said.

“If you go to rural Alberta hospitals or long-term care facilities, most nurses and support staff are immigrants because we can’t find local workers to work there. The same is true in many educational facilities.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is being released from the hospital on Saturday, four days after lung cancer surgery, and will deliver the traditional noon blessing Sunday from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican announced.

The 71-year-old Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed after doctors identified a suspected cancerous nodule.

The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

His personal physician and surgeon said in a separate statement that Leo was “deemed fit for discharge from the hospital” based on blood test results and a chest X-ray performed Saturday morning along with an assessment of his clinical condition.

He is set to leave the hospital in the early afternoon and return to the Vatican, the Vatican said in a brief statement.

With notable transparency, Leo announced last Sunday to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square that doctors had identified a nodule on his lung, and that it would be removed.

Since the surgery on Tuesday that confirmed the cancer diagnosis, Leo has given strong indications that he was recovering well, including by holding a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting with top aides and celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel.

Spare medical bulletins from his personal physician and surgeon likewise indicated a good post-operative recovery that had allowed him to carry on “normal daily activities completely on his own.”

The Vatican on Friday released the first images of Leo since his lung cancer surgery, showing him standing up at an altar in a hospital chapel in green vestments, as doctors said that tests confirmed his “continued improvement.”

Leo presided alone over the liturgy, distributing Communion to medical personnel and Vatican gendarmes present, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. He also delivered a homily in which he thanked the hospital staff “for the work they do every day taking care of the sick in their fragility, and in a particular way what they had done for him,” Bruni said.

The Vatican had originally estimated a weeklong hospital stay, and had cancelled his audiences through Tuesday. Bruni said the discharge date was up to the pope’s doctors.

The pope’s next big agenda item is a trip to Latin America from Nov. 6-17, which gives Leo three more weeks of recovery before taking on the ambitious journey that includes a dozen flights and two helicopter trips.

The Vatican has given signs of all-systems go, publishing the names of journalists accredited to fly on Leo’s plane on Friday. And oncology surgeons say protocols generally clear patients to fly after three weeks, as long as recovery allows.

Doctors are still awaiting the results of tests to understand the precise molecular and genetic makeup of the cancer, whether it has spread beyond the lobe and whether any further treatment is necessary.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged supporters Saturday to speak out in defense of new U.S. sanctions against Russia, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing a sweeping package of restrictions targeting the Russian economy.

The White House decision has further raised fears that Ukraine could be left exposed to Moscow’s escalating assaults with winter approaching.

Russian attacks overnight killed at least four people, including an ambulance driver, and wounded dozens, officials said.

Ukrainian drones killed a woman in a Russian border region and disrupted flights at Moscow’s airports, according to Russian authorities.

In a statement on social media, Zelenskyy described Trump’s move to put sanctions on hold as unfortunate, but did not directly criticize the U.S. leader despite deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington in recent days.

“A decision was unfortunately made in America to completely disregard the Lindsey Graham Act, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Later, in audio clips answering journalists’ questions, Zelenskyy thanked Democrats and Republicans who backed the legislation and praised its bipartisan support. He said blocking it would encourage Russia to continue killing and do nothing to bring the war to an end.

He also added that limiting Ukraine’s ability to retaliate against Russian attacks would not bring peace.

“Nevertheless, we very much hope — and I personally hope — that the president of the United States of America will do everything possible to make Putin stop the killing, stop the attacks on our energy infrastructure, and end this war,” he said.

Critics say Trump’s decision helps Putin

Named after late South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the legislation had sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fueling Russia’s 4 1/2-year-old war against Ukraine. The bill had sought to sanction Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving.

Trump personally signed the legislation just last month and his move came just two days before a deadline set in the law itself for its implementation.

The president told Congress that the pause was in the national interest but gave no further details.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who co-drafted the bill, said in a statement that Trump was turning his back on “the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, and our European allies.”

“These waivers have nothing to do with our national security, and everything to do with sucking up to Vladimir Putin,” Blumenthal said.

Trump’s unexpected decision comes a week after he stunningly said the U.S. had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia to try to bring down global energy prices, despite that potentially hurting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”

The decision has been pilloried by Republicans and Democrats alike who say it will help Russia execute its war against Ukraine — without making a difference to global fuel prices, which are elevated mostly due to Trump’s war on Iran.

Kyiv says Moscow carried out a ‘massive’ energy strike

Zelenskyy also said Saturday that Moscow had carried out a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, targeting more than 15 sites across the country.

“The sheer scale and unrelenting pace of Russia’s strikes, specifically against our energy sector, are unfortunately having severe consequences,” he said.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russian forces launched four cruise missiles and 332 attack drones overnight. All of the missiles and 289 of the drones had been suppressed or destroyed, it said.

Russia’s heavy bombardment of the power grid ahead of winter has been an annual feature of the war, aimed at wearing down Ukraine’s appetite for the fight by denying civilians heat and running water. Ukrainian officials have warned that

Russia is stockpiling ballistic missiles for more attacks in the coming months.

Russian attacks killed three people in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, Vadym Liakh, head of the city military administration, said Saturday. Writing on social media, Liakh said that two apartment blocks were partially destroyed and other homes damaged.

A Russian strike also killed an ambulance driver in Ukraine’s Kherson region, head of the local military administration Yaroslav Shanko said. The strike, which used guided bombs, wounded at least 33 others, he said.

Ukrainian drones kill 1, ground hundreds of flights at Moscow airports

Elsewhere, a Russian woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian border region of Belgorod, local officials said.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday that its forces had shot down 610 Ukrainian drones overnight over 15 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that more than 100 drones were shot down en route to the Russian capital. More than 350 flights were canceled or delayed at Moscow’s airports, local media reported, as planes were grounded in response to incoming drones.

The Kremlin announced Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had approved a government program to help restore trade and logistics facilities damaged in drone attacks.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

PARIS (AP) — Scuffles broke out Saturday in Paris between police and small groups of protesters joining a march as part of nationwide demonstrations against rising living costs and in support of high school students’ grievances.

Police used tear gas to push back people wearing hoods and masks and throwing fireworks and other objects at officers in the Place de la République, northeast of the Paris city center. Large numbers of riot police were deployed in the square and surrounding streets.

Protesters across France responded to calls on social media to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice. Student groups protesting since mid-September through school blockades have urged supporters to join them.

The CGT, one of France’s major labor unions, also backed the protests, calling for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs.”

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez’s office said authorities had recorded 140 protest actions outside the Paris region by midday, involving over 30,000 people. Authorities reported at least 166 arrests across the country.

Nuñez’s office pointed out to violence carried out by people wearing masks in Paris, Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse and Angers, including attempted looting, attacks on police officers, fires set to street furniture and the targeting of government institutions and media outlets.

In the southern port city of Marseille, some shops and a municipal police station were damaged, while some protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall. Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan, speaking on BFM television, described “limited damage” in the lobby after protesters were dispersed by police.

President Emmanuel Macron appealed Friday for calm. “There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself,” he said in Brussels. “But this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy.”

Police banned some other proposed gatherings in central Paris. Many metro stations were closed Saturday at police request, including those around the Champs-Elysées and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.

In recent weeks, France has seen thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries and schools set on fire as the new school year descended into nationwide student protests that are influencing the country’s presidential election campaign and drawing international attention.

Among protesters, particularly gruesome wounds suffered by some teenagers have been blamed on police riot-control weapons. Nuñez suspended the use of a type of police stun grenade against the young demonstrators after a 15-year-old lost a hand.

On Tuesday, climate and social justice activist Greta Thunberg joined students at a high school in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

EDMONTON – The Edmonton Elks will host the CFL West final for the first time in more than a decade.

Cody Fajardo ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more as Edmonton rallied to a 35-27 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday. Edmonton has not hosted a West final or even a home playoff game at all since 2015.

“It feels great,” said Elks head coach Mark Kilam. “We had a great opportunity to be able to clinch at home in front of our fans, so I’m really proud of the guys for finding a way tonight.”

Fajardo completed 12 of 17 pass attempts for 120 yards for the Elks (13-4).

“That was sweet,” he said. “I told the guys going in that this was phase three of five and we checked that off of our list. Getting a West final in front of our fans, they were the difference tonight.

“It was just huge three phase football tonight, I couldn’t be prouder of this team.”

The Blue Bombers (8-9) failed in their attempt to secure a playoff spot, but could still earn a post-season berth this weekend if Calgary loses to B.C. on Saturday.

“It was just not good enough,” said Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea. “We were on the wrong end of five or six plays. It’s like every game.

“The winners usually make those five or six and the guys that don’t go home wishing they did.”

Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros completed 28 of 33 passes for 331 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.

“You can’t make mistakes, you can’t lose the turnover battle,” he said. “You can’t throw interceptions when you’re driving to potentially take a lead in a game. Those are on me.

“When you make mistakes that are that magnified, it’s going to hurt you.”

After missing a field goal on their first drive, the Blue Bombers put together another strong drive with five minutes left in the opening quarter and capped it off with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Collaros to Nic Demski.

The Elks responded with an 18-yard field goal from Vincent Blanchard to close out the quarter.

Collaros was picked off at the Winnipeg nine by Kenny Logan Jr., leading immediately to a pass from Fajardo to Shunderrick Powell, who fought his way into the end zone. Fajardo had gone three straight games without a TD pass.

The Bombers’ QB made up for it on the next series as he hit Ontaria Wilson deep in the end zone for a 32-yard TD strike.

Winnipeg kept it coming with a one-yard TD run by backup QB Bryce Perkins.

However, after a 65-yard kickoff return by Montrell Washington, the Elks converted a third-down gamble with two seconds remaining in the first half on a four-yard TD pass from Fajardo to Austin Mack to cut Winnipeg’s lead to 21-17 at the mid-mark.

Edmonton carried that momentum forward to start the third as Fajardo finished off a long drive with a one-yard TD plunge. They added a single on the subsequent kick.

The Bombers pulled back within one on a 23-yard field goal by Sergio Castillo, but he would hit the uprights from 55 yards out on his next attempt.

Blanchard kicked a 52-yarder for the Elks.

Edmonton went up 35-24 with 1:39 remaining as Fajardo took another one in from two yards out.

Castillo kicked a late 53-yard field goal.

Notes

The Elks captured their third straight win over Winnipeg, having previously defeated the Bombers 23-18 and 22-18 this season. The last time Edmonton swept a three-game series against Winnipeg was in 1979 … Demski caught his 47th career TD pass, tying him for first among active players with Kenny Lawler.

Up next

Winnipeg: Travels to B.C. to face the Lions to close out regular season play next Friday.

Edmonton: Finishes the regular season in Saskatchewan against the Roughriders next Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that puts on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause was in the national interest.

Trump personally signed the legislation just last month and his move came just two days before a deadline set in the law itself for its implementation. It drew shift condemnation from congressional Democrats.

Named after late South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the legislation had sought to clamp down more quickly on the flow of financial resources fueling the war against Ukraine.

Trump’s unexpected decision comes a week after he stunningly said the U.S. had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia to try to bring down global energy prices, despite that potentially hurting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published Oct. 1 found that Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the Iran war and blame him for higher prices. Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to near-historic lows and pressure is mounting as Republicans try to hold control of both chambers of Congress after midterm elections on Nov. 3.

Sanctions were seen as part of Graham’s legacy

Graham, a close ally and friend of the president, had just returned from Ukraine when he unexpectedly died in July. He had advocated for stricter U.S. sanctions against Russia as a way of pressuring it to end its war in Ukraine.

His colleagues in Congress responded with bipartisan support after his death and Trump attached his signature to the legislation — then changed his mind Friday.

The package had been meant to starve Russian President Vladimir Putin of the resources Moscow needs to continue its war in Ukraine after invading its neighbor more than four years ago. The bill, also drafted by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., had sought to sanction Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving.

It also directed Trump to impose up to 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports.

Blumenthal said in a statement that Trump was turning his back on “the majority of Americans, their representatives in both houses of Congress, and our European allies.”

“These waivers have nothing to do with our national security, and everything to do with sucking up to Vladimir Putin,” Blumenthal said.

Democratic Virginia Rep. Don Beyer noted on social media shortly after the announcement of the sanctions being suspended that he and others had “warned” Trump might make such a move. The veteran congressman, who spoke out against the bill as it was debated, called on Congress to “fix this flawed law to stop Trump from capitulating to Putin and ensure that it truly supports Ukraine.”

The White House did not immediately explain how pausing the sanctions was in the national interest. The decision was posted on the White House website late in the evening, and the notification noted that the report explaining the decision had been submitted to Congress.

Still, it comes as Trump has increasingly lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, blaming him for failing to make a deal with Putin to end the fighting.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, had remained mostly quiet since the passage of the bill with large majorities in the House and Senate following Graham’s sudden death — with lawmakers urged ahead by Zelenskyy.

Trump’s action follows announced diesel deal with Putin

Under last week’s agreement, Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”

Trump’s striking a diesel deal with Putin has been pilloried by Republicans and Democrats alike who say it will help Russia execute its war against Ukraine — without making a different to global fuel prices, which are elevated mostly due to Trump’s war on Iran.

The sanctions that Trump has now suspended, meanwhile, also had become a campaign centerpiece for Sen. Darline Graham, the late senator’s sister who was appointed to serve out the remaining months in his current term. She is now running to replace him in the Senate more permanently.

Darline Graham said in a statement after Trump signed the bill, “I wish Lindsey were here to celebrate this historic day.” In a debate earlier this week with Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, Graham — who has Trump’s endorsement and is expected to campaign with him in South Carolina next week — said she had been “so proud” to help get the measure passed.

She acknowledged, however, that it was the president’s purview as to how he implemented it.

“It gives the president tools that he can use if he so chooses, to end the war through economic sanctions,” Graham said Sunday during a debate in Columbia. “So that’s up to him as to whether or not he wants to use it, or whether he wants to use something else, but I think the purpose of it is to bring down the gas prices and ultimately end the war. And when the war ends, gas prices will fall.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

DETROIT – Trayce Jackson-Davis led all scorers with 23 points — including 15 made free throws — but the Toronto Raptors still fell to the Detroit Pistons 129-125 on Friday in the final pre-season game for both teams.

Jackson-Davis also had three rebounds and a steal as Toronto (2-3) didn’t put any of its top rotation players in the game.

Nimari Burnett had 17 points and five boards for the Raptors, while rookie Allen Gaves added nine points but pulled down eight rebounds.

Cade Cunningham had 18 points and seven assists to lead Detroit (3-1) and Jalen Duren had 14 points and three rebounds.

Both of them played limited minutes as the Pistons had 18 different players enter the game.

Toronto hosts the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday in their regular-season home opener.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

 As construction of the original project continues along, so does the debate about Regina’s involvement. On Wednesday, City Council passed a motion directing administration to gather more information. Passing the motion involved more than 7 hours of discussion, and it only squeaked through by the narrowest of margins – five votes to four.

Ward 5 City Councillor Sarah Turnbull said “It’s really a report for the public, because it will answer the questions of what has happened so far, where were these decisions made, and then there won’t be any more questions.”

But Ward 10 City Councilor Clark Bezo feels differently.

“We have another substantial budget to look at. And if we’re taking time and resources from people, that should be looking at the projects that influence you directly, it’s not the best use of our time.”

Turnbull, however, feels the project could directly affect Regina residents, and therefore says the City should assess it.

“Just because something’s happening 2.5 kilometers away from Regina doesn’t mean it’s not going to affect Regina” she said Wednesday.

But from Bezo’s perspective, it’s still a question of jurisdiction.

“I want to make it very clear that the city has no jurisdictional boundaries within the RM of Sherwood” says Bezo.

And while it’s true that all final decisions and approvals rest with the RM of Sherwood, the site does sit in a collaborative planning area. Last time around, on the original project, the City waived its right to review a secondary concept plan, without City Council’s knowledge, according to Turnbull.

“It wasn’t known by council when they passed that. And so I think it’s important to course correct so things like a future power plant doesn’t get missed” said Turnbull.

Ultimately, the motion requesting a report has already passed, so that is decided. Administration will prepare a report. Less certain however,  is the outcome of another motion that council will hear in the coming weeks, seeking to restore the City’s right to review a secondary concept plan.

That motion will likely be hotly debated.

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