In the mid-70s, David Bowie was a mess. He was drinking a lot. His cocaine intake was off the charts. And he was convinced that he was some kind of alien who was being pursued by witches looking to steal his vital essence, which is why he took to storing his urine in the fridge. Oh, and for a while, he fell to less than 100 pounds because all he would eat for meals was milk and red peppers.

This being the 70s, the police were often curious about what sort of illegal things rock stars like Bowie were up to. On December 1, 1974, after the final show of the Diamond Dogs tour, there was a party. It was decadent.

Suddenly, a bunch of plainclothes cops armed with handguns broke down the door. Bowie retreated to a bedroom where he was able to flush his stash. Whatever was left was claimed by Bowie’s bodyguard, Tony Mascia.

He took the rap for his boss, keeping Bowie from being arrested on serious drug charges.

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Before there was X Factor and all the Idol and Got Talent TV shows, there was The Gong Show. It was conceived as an insane half-hour of absurdity by TV executive Chuck Barris. It debuted in 1975 and ran for 500 episodes.

There was often nothing serious about the amateur contestants who performed for the panel of judges. If they couldn’t stand you, one of them struck a big gong and your time was done.

John Lee was a radio DJ who also played in a band called The Hard Luck Band. In about 1979, John appeared singing a cover of The Eagles Desperado. Much to his surprise, the judges loved his performance, and he won that particular episode, escaping with his dignity and a little cash.

Why do I mention this? Because John Lee is the father of Amy Lee of Evanescence.

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One of the great things about vinyl is that you have a 12×12 palette on which to create artwork that says something about the release.

For example, everyone knows the cover for Nirvana’s Nevermind with the naked baby underwater in a pool chasing a dollar bill on a fishing hook. What’s the message? The designer Robert Fisher wanted to make a punk rock statement about the evils of late 20^th-century capitalism mated with the cynicism felt by the Gen Xers of the day.

Nirvana loved the concept because it captured their anti-corporate feelings. It has become one of the most famous album covers of all time.

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A concept album is a record that has a narrative, theme, or story that links all the songs together in a unified way. Green Day’s American Idiot qualifies as such a record.

Dig into rock history, and you’ll find plenty more: The Wall by Pink Floyd, both Tommy and Quadrophenia by The Who, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, and My Chemical Romance and The Black Parade are all examples. But who was the first to release a concept album?

If we’re going to be honest, it was Frank Sinatra in 1955. That’s when he released In the Wee Small Hours, which features songs about that particular time of day. But hang on. We can also make a case for folksinger Woody Guthrie.

He released a collection of songs entitled Dust Bowl Ballads, which featured accounts of Depression-era America. The year was 1940.

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A senior member of the Iranian regime has been deported from Canada after a judge dismissed his last-minute appeal, Global News has learned.

The Canada Border Services Agency said it had removed Syed Salman Samani, Iran’s former deputy interior minister and official spokesperson.

“As a matter of public interest, the CBSA can confirm that it has removed Syed Salman Samani from Canada,” the agency said in a statement.

He is the second regime official to be expelled under a 2022 policy that banned high-ranking members of Iran’s repressive government from Canada.

Before arriving in Canada in 2022, Samani was a “career politician” in the Islamic Republic from 2007 to 2021, according to the CBSA.

“The subject demonstrated his commitment and loyalty to the regime throughout his career,” the CBSA wrote in its report on Samani.

The Immigration and Refugee Board ordered his deportation in 2024. The Federal Court rejected his appeal in a decision released this week.

Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond wrote that Samani had told the CBSA he “had significant power and influence over government decisions.”

Further, Samani’s ministry oversaw “police forces, which were responsible for the widespread killing of civilians and other human rights abuses,” Grammond wrote.

As a government spokesperson, Samani “publicly defended the ministry’s conduct” during its 2019 deadly Bloody November crackdown on protesters, the court added.

He also “publicly threatened politicians who were questioning that conduct,” but maintained to the CBSA that he “did nothing wrong during this period.”

Samani had claimed he had decided to leave Iran because of its killing of demonstrators, and said he feared he might be harmed if Canada sent him back to Iran.

But the judge ruled that was unlikely to happen, and was outweighed by Canada’s interests in expelling “those responsible for systematic human rights violations.”

Samani had tried to keep his court appeal secret, but the judge dismissed his application, although it agreed to seal the files on his case due to their sensitivity.

Samani had also tried to ban the press from his 2024 deportation hearing but Global News successfully fought the move.

Iranian-Canadians have long complained that members of the regime they fled have been turning up in Canada and treating the country as a safe haven.

Ottawa banned all “senior” officials of the Iranian government from entering Canada four years ago, but has struggled to deport them.

According to figures released on June 30, the CBSA has launched 180 investigations into suspected “senior officials of the Iranian regime” living in Canada.

“To date, the CBSA have identified 37 individuals that are believed to be senior officials of the regime,” the agency said on its website.

Eight of them left Canada before their deportations hearings began. The IRB has issued deportation orders against three more on the grounds they were top regime members.

Another seven were found by the IRB to not be senior regime members. Nine remain before the IRB, while the CBSA is preparing cases against another ten.

Fifty-five are still being investigated.

A CBSA spokesperson said the agency continued to take action to stop Iranian regime members “from seeking or finding safe haven in Canada.”

A record 23,160 foreign nationals were removed from Canada in 2025, and the CBSA is currently “currently executing approximately 400 removal orders per week,” the spokesperson said.

The agency has hired more enforcement officers “to expedite the processing of inadmissible foreign nationals facing removal from Canada,” the CBSA added.

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The biggest songs. The hottest stars. The stories behind the songs.

Every week, American Country Countdown with Ryan Fox counts down the Top 30 songs on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, featuring exclusive artist interviews, songwriter insights, and the latest news from Nashville.

Catch American Country Countdown with Ryan Fox every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon on CISN Country 103.9 Edmonton and Country 105 Calgary.

Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen have a new No. 1 together. “I Can’t Love You Anymore” climbs to the top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart, giving Langley her fifth No. 1 and Wallen his 22nd. Their first collaboration made the trip to No. 1 in just 15 weeks and follows Wallen’s “Don’t We,” which spent the previous two weeks at the top. It marks just the third time in the chart’s 36-year history that an artist has been part of back-to-back No. 1 songs.

“I’ve daydreamed about this career my whole entire life. I’m just trying to put out music I love and hope people come to the shows.” Ella Langley

“I know how much of a sacrifice she’s made to get to this point, and it makes me extremely happy to see all the good things coming her way.” Morgan Wallen

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Released on April 24, 2026, “I Can’t Love You Anymore” appears on the reissue of Langley’s second studio album, Dandelion. Langley wrote the song with Austin Goodloe and Joybeth Taylor, and also had a hand in producing the track alongside Ben West and Goodloe.

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While “I Can’t Love You Anymore” takes over at country radio, Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” continues its remarkable run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song is spending its 17th week at No. 1, giving it sole possession of the fourth-longest reign in the chart’s history.

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The story behind “I Can’t Love You Anymore” came together quickly. Langley sent the song to Wallen about a month before his April 18 stadium show in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Wallen loved what he heard. When Langley joined him onstage that night, the pair surprised the crowd by announcing the duet and performing it together for the first time.

Listen to Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen team up on “I Can’t Love You Anymore” in the official lyric video.

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After more than a week away, some Summerland residents are finally walking back through their front doors as parts of the community begin to reopen following the Bald Range wildfire.

Re-entry is currently allowed in Trout Creek and areas of Summerland east of Highway 97, covering roughly 1,200 properties.

For Scott and Linda Goodwin, being home again is a relief. Their property has no major structural damage, but smoke and ash are everywhere.

“It smells like smoke,” Scott said, describing what he found when he returned. “There was ash all through here.”

His first job was cleaning. He got down on his knees with a shop vacuum to clear the ash from inside his home.

Despite that, Linda says she is simply grateful to have a home to return to even though there is a strong smell of wildfire in her home.

“We were just so glad to be home because home is where your heart is,” she said.

But while the Goodwins are happy to be back, Linda says the evacuation experience itself left her frustrated. She questioned why evacuees were forced to endure lengthy lineups while trying to get the help and documentation they needed.

“Why should you have to endure 20 hours of lineups to actually verify what you need?” she said**, adding that she** did not think there were enough government workers for the amount of evacuees.

Linda says the volunteers at the evacuation centre were a bright spot during a difficult time, praising them for working tirelessly and showing compassion toward evacuees.

She now plans to write to the provincial government, hoping her experience can help improve the response to future wildfires.

The Bald Range fire continues to burn across more than 21,000 hectares.

For Linda and Scott, though, the immediate priority is much simpler, getting settled back into the home they feared they might lose.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Video posted to social media shows a pair of orcas giving a group in Washington state an up-close-and-personal view.

People on Fox Island, off the coast of Tacoma, were surprised to see orcas swimming so close to shore.

Wildlife photographer Stephanie Morris told Global News that she has followed whales in the area before while taking photographs.

But she said this is by far the closest she’s ever been to them.

“I think people are having a hard time believing that the video could be real because they’re so close to shore, but it’s just a really really — the sandspit is super, it sticks out really far, but there’s a huge drop-off from that sandspit, which allowed them to get close to shore and it was shocking to see them that close to shore,” Morris said.

The video has more than five million views on Instagram.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A Richmond plywood manufacturer is concerned about what Wednesday is going to bring for his business.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as officials race against the clock to secure a new trade deal before new 50-per-cent tariffs take effect Wednesday.

The duties will impact roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian exports, including 20 per cent of sales at Richmond Plywood, where they produce a lot of high-end product.

“A 50 per cent tariff is not a margin we can absorb, nor is it something U.S. customers will be willing to pay,” Bhavjit Thandi, CFO of Richmond Plywood, said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Newfoundland on Monday and says he expects to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump before Wednesday’s deadline

He wasn’t saying much else.

“We’ll have opportunities over the next 48 hours to discuss that in more detail as the negotiations go forward; I think that’s the best forum,” he said.

 

David Eby’s government wasn’t commenting on the trade talks Monday.

They don’t have much of a line of sight into what’s going on in Washington, but if those new tariffs are imposed, B.C. will feel the pain.

“Our estimate is that B.C. has about 13 per cent in terms of the U.S. share of those exports that take a hit and this is a little bit higher than Ontario and Quebec,” Brian Yu, associate vice president and chief economist with Central 1 Credit Union, said.

So far, the premier is reluctant to make any concessions such as returning U.S. alcohol to B.C. shelves without tariff relief for key industries such as forestry.

But sources told Global News the Americans have not been interested in discussing softwood lumber.

“The softwood lumber sector is bigger than auto parts and steel combined in terms of the Canadian economy and it needs to be front and centre at the table,” Eby said on Friday.

Despite the impasse, there’s hope the new 50-per-cent U.S. tariffs will be delayed or scrapped, but for businesses watching as the deadline nears, negotiators are cutting it awfully close for comfort.

-with files from Uday Rana

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Nova Scotia’s energy minister is facing calls to resign after a rap song he recorded more than a decade ago resurfaced online, drawing criticism from advocates who say its lyrics are misogynistic and degrading to women.

Marco MacLeod, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Pictou West, has come under fire over a track from a rap album he released in 2013. Advocates and members of the public have criticized lyrics in one song, titled Meadowville, which they say make derogatory references to women and include mentions of illegal drugs.

The controversy gained traction on social media in recent days, prompting criticism from gender-based violence advocates and organizations that support women and gender-diverse people.

Liz LeClair, a gender-based violence advocate, said the lyrics raise concerns about whether survivors would feel comfortable seeking support from a politician whose past work contained such content.

“If you’re somebody that’s suffering with intimate partner violence or some form of gender-based violence, and this is the person that represents you and you need to go to them for help, I’m not really sure how you can sit in front of this man and trust that he understands the systemic problems,” LeClair said.

The criticism comes even as some have defended MacLeod, noting the music was recorded and released more than 13 years ago.

MacLeod responded to the backlash with a handwritten statement posted on social media.

“I want to be very clear: I apologize for my words from 13 years ago,” he wrote. “I accept full responsibility for these lyrics and I am committed to doing everything I can as a community leader to bring about the change necessary to stop misogyny in all its forms.”

He added that he was sorry to anyone who felt “small, degraded or upset” because of the lyrics.

For some advocacy groups, however, the apology was insufficient.

In a statement, Adsum House for Women and Children said holding such views and distributing that type of content should disqualify someone from public office, regardless of when it was created.

The organization said MacLeod was an adult when the music was recorded and rejected what it described as attempts to excuse the lyrics as youthful behaviour.

The Progressive Conservative Party defended its minister in a written statement, saying violence is never acceptable and noting that Nova Scotia has declared intimate partner violence an epidemic. The party said MacLeod and his colleagues take the issue seriously, as well as the findings of the Mass Casualty Commission.

LeClair said she believes MacLeod’s future in cabinet should depend on whether he demonstrates a deeper understanding of the harm caused by the lyrics.

“It’s up to his constituents whether or not they vote for him again, but I don’t think he deserves to have a cabinet position unless he’s done the work to do repair,” she said.

The controversy has sparked a broader debate online about accountability for public officials and whether past artistic work should affect a politician’s suitability for office years later.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.