The search for a missing cat in Winnipeg has led to a man being charged with extortion, police said Sunday.
A 44-year-old woman reported that her cat had gone missing on July 14 from her residence in the 200 block of Manitoba Avenue.
The woman told police that she suspected a neighbour was involved.
That neighbour later admitted to the woman that he had her cat and delivered a letter demanding money in exchange for the feline’s return. The woman shared the information with police.
On Thursday, police visited the neighbour’s home, located the cat unharmed and returned it to the woman.
The 72-year-old man is now facing charges of extortion and theft under $5,000. He has since been released on an undertaking.
RELATED: That smoky smell wafted back into Winnipeg this week due to wildfires in northern Ontario. Environment Canada advised residents to stay indoors and keep windows shut because as Toni De Guzman reports, there can be significant health risks when breathing it in.
Arnold Reimer walks through a forest analyzing the colour of a tree’s needle – a fiery orange or green – and effortlessly pointing out if it’s dead or overmature just by a quick glance from years of experience.
He’s among the Manitoba loggers concerned their supply is turning to ash as wildfires continue to burn through forests across the country.
Canada’s forest sector supports nearly 200,000 workers and contributes more than $20 billion to the GDP, according to the government of Canada.
Reimer, 68, started logging when he was in his mid-teens, after his dad got into it to make income outside of farming for the family of 11. He founded Spruce Wood Loggers, north of Arborg, Man., in 1981, which has been selling rough lumber, wood pellets, mulch, wood chips and firewood.
His sons, Charles and Scott, now own the business, but he fears it could stop there with an unpredictable wood supply.
Reimer said close to a third of the trees he comes across are dead or overmature. While overmature trees aren’t necessarily bad supply and still have their purpose, they have less moisture and can catch fire more easily, which poses a risk to the town.
“As long as we have that type of timber surround the younger stuff, the younger stuff is in jeopardy,” said Reimer, standing a few steps away from a healthy, growing forest he once clear-cut.
He noted that if a lightning strike landed on a particular tall, spiky tree, the whole forest could go up in flames. Fifty-eight per cent of wildfires in Manitoba are ignited by lightning, according to the province’s report on the status of forestry between 2016 and 2020.
John Morris, executive director at the Forestry Industry Association of Manitoba, said the loss of timber means job losses, fewer economic opportunities, and impacts on rural and northern communities that depend on the industry.
“It’s a decrease in the availability of products and an increase in price,” Morris said.
In the long term, investments in forestry could slow down.
Robert (Bob) Gray, a B.C.-based wildland fire ecologist, said logging is built on predictability — betting that trees will stay and mature, so loggers can reap the harvest — but wildfires are unpredictable.
“People won’t make investments in the forest industry because the system is so unpredictable,” Gray said. “Why would you invest $100 million on a mill to upgrade it when you look at the inventory, and it could be there this year, and it might not be there tomorrow?”
He said aging forests are more prone to insects, disease and wildfires.
Gray said the forest industry is “salvaging” as much timber as it can before it deteriorates.
Morris said a paper mill in The Pas, Man., Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Ltd., has been impacted, with wildfires burning unharvested timber and some harvested wood.
Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Ltd. did not get back to multiple requests for comment.
Global News recently reported that Canfor is closing a pulp mill in Prince George, B.C., losing more than 300 jobs.
There were 143 active wildfires burning in Manitoba as of Thursday, said the province.
RELATED: U.S. allegedly attacked civilian sites in Iran as Trump says war is going well
The United States launched more airstrikes at Iran on Sunday in response to the killing of U.S. troops, and Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel.
Step by step, the U.S. and Iran have returned closer to all-out war as last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people.
The U.S. military said the latest strikes targeted Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for Friday’s killing of troops in Jordan. The campaign, now in its second week, has seen the U.S. target bridges, water desalination plants and electrical facilities in Iran. Tehran has hit U.S.-allied countries throughout the Middle East.
Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain again activated air defenses for incoming Iranian drones and missiles. Israel warned that missiles launched toward neighboring Jordan could cause fire to spill over into Israeli territory for the first time in weeks.
Iran says a nuclear site under construction was hit
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites.” It said the attack was designed to degrade Iran’s ability to control the strait and “swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces,” a power base in Iran’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal.
Footage released by the U.S. military appeared to show strikes carried out by fighter jets and by Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the sea. One target site appeared to be in a valley of a mountainous region. The Guard often has missile bases and other military equipment tucked into mountain ranges.
Iran’s atomic energy agency said U.S. strikes targeted the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in the southwest, state television reported.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC of the Darkhovin nuclear plant site showed earth clearing but little construction as of July 9. Iran did not previously announce it as being targeted.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the site, in the “very early stages of construction,” contained no nuclear material when the U.N. watchdog last visited.
Jordan and nearly every Gulf Arab state have been targeted
Jordan’s military said it shot down several Iranian missiles. The country hosts major U.S. bases and relies on U.S. air-defense systems. The missiles did not cause casualties or damage, according to Jordan’s military.
Jordan later summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires to protest, state-run television reported.
Israel’s military said Iranian missiles launched toward the Jordanian port city of Aqaba just across the border could spill over, warning Israelis to expect the first air-raid sirens in weeks.
Eilat, the Israeli city that neighbors Aqaba, cited security officials as saying two interceptors were launched from its outskirts to prevent the fall of debris.
During the latest fighting, Iran has focused attacks on U.S.-allied Arab states rather than Israel, which launched the war with the U.S. on Feb. 28. “We are prepared to immediately resume combat,” the Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said.
Kuwait said one of its power and water desalination plants was attacked for the second time in two days, causing fires. Its Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said the power grid remains stable. In Kuwait, about 90% of drinking water comes from desalination.
The secretary-general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, has accused Iran of war crimes for strikes on infrastructure and civilian facilities.
International humanitarian law generally protects civilian infrastructure such as bridges and power plants from attack, but such sites can lose protections if used for military purposes. In such cases, attacks must be proportionate and minimize civilian harm.
The Strait of Hormuz remains key to the conflict
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran’s power stations and bridges to try to compel Tehran to loosen its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, which saw one-fifth of global oil supplies transit before the war. Recent attacks suggest the U.S. military is carrying out that plan.
The U.S. in the past week reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil. The military on Saturday said it had redirected five ships and disabled one since then.
A maritime organization overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday that the threat to mariners is severe after previous Iranian attacks, “with deliberate hostile action considered highly likely.” It said traffic remained low, with eight transits on Saturday and three on Friday. The daily average before the war was almost 140.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a statement Saturday, warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the U.S. keeps attacking the Islamic Republic. An Iranian negotiator said Tehran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal and accused the U.S. of violating it.
The halfway point has passed in the 60 days the deal set out to negotiate the permanent end of the war and other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.
Since the war began, 16 U.S. service members have been killed and over 430 wounded. Iranian authorities on Sunday said at least 50 people have been killed and 517 wounded in the latest U.S. strikes. Iran has provided no overall information on its materiel losses.
Far from the region, the war’s effects on the prices of fuel and other goods have hit some of the world’s most vulnerable areas hard.
–Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writer Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo contributed.
FILE - Andrew Tate, right, and his brother Tristan arrive an event, April 11, 2026, in Miami.
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool, File
Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, whose social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities, were arrested Saturday in Miami as British authorities sought their extradition on rape and sex trafficking charges.
The brothers were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service on a sealed warrant, agency spokesperson Brady McCarron told The Associated Press, placing the United States at the center of an international legal saga that has stretched from Romania to Britain.
Britain is seeking their extradition on rape and trafficking charges
British prosecutors announced Saturday that they were seeking the brothers’ extradition on charges alleging they raped and trafficked women between 2010 and 2017.
The dual U.S. and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations and the Romanian case hasn’t gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.
Last year, they were allowed to leave Romania and flew to Florida on a private jet.
The brothers are expected to appear in Miami’s federal court early next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations.
The pending charges in the United Kingdom accused the brothers of abusing women in an area north of London, where they grew up. Their lawyers had said they denied the allegations.
Joseph McBride, an attorney representing the Tate brothers, said in a phone interview Saturday evening that he has not been able to speak with his clients but called the new charges out of the U.K. “filth and slander” intended to derail defamation lawsuits filed by the brothers in the U.S.
“They’re pulling out all the stops to make sure these guys never get their day in court,” McBride said.
“We are confident that once a competent judge sees the facts, and once the Department of Justice confronts this egregious abuse of its own authority, Andrew and Tristan Tate will walk free. America does not do Britain’s political dirty work.”
Tate has been banned from social media platforms for hate speech
Andrew Tate, 39, first reached a mainstream audience as a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother” in 2016. He was removed from the show when a video surfaced that appeared to show Tate assaulting a woman. He and his brother Tristan Tate, 38, are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Andrew Tate has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for violating hate speech guidelines. His most widely condemned rhetoric includes comments that women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for their attacks, graphic descriptions of how he might attack women and criticisms of people who seek treatment for mental illness.
The Tate brothers have consistently denied allegations of abuse and human trafficking, claiming that violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.
In a statement Saturday, the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Services said that in addition to the charges publicly announced against the brothers in 2025, involving alleged crimes against three women, it was bringing a total of 38 new charges related to “four further victims.”
Both brothers are accused of rape and human trafficking. Andrew Tate faces an additional charge of profiting from prostitution, and 19 charges “for offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography,” according to U.K. authorities.
“There is no place for male violence against women and girls, and we will continue to work tirelessly to support victims and investigate all reports made to us,” said Karena Thomas, an assistant chief constable of the Bedfordshire Police, which investigated the case.
—Associated Press writer Savannah Peters in Santa Fe, New Mexico contributed to this report.
RELATED: Ebola outbreak continues to spread in Eastern Congo
Canada is barring foreign nationals who visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past 21 days in its latest effort to prevent Ebola from entering and spreading in this country.
The Public Health Agency of Canada made the announcement Sunday, with the new rule set to start on Monday at 11:59 p.m.
As part of the move, commercial and private air carriers will also be required to not permit foreign nationals who visited the DRC to board a flight to Canada.
“Limiting entry of foreign nationals who have been in the the DRC in the previous 21 days may reduce public health risks for Canadians and is intended to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of border measures that can safely process travelers arriving in Canada, including our returning humanitarian workers,” the agency said in a news release.
The decision to prohibit foreign nationals from entering Canada is a shift from the government’s previous measures in May, which required travellers from Ebola-affected regions to self-isolate for 21 days.
That requirement also applied to South Sudan and Uganda. The measure announced Sunday does not include travel bans from either country.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and persons registered under the Indian Act entering Canada who visited the DRC, South Sudan or Uganda within the past 21 days will still be allowed to enter. They will receive a health assessment on their arrival and be required to self-isolate for 21 days.
Government officials stated before a press conference announcing the initial measures in May that, on average, 350 people from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan come to Canada weekly.
The majority of passengers arrive in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver airports, with about 60 per cent of flights being Canadians or permanent residents, whereas 40 per cent are foreign nationals.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security imposed a U.S. entry ban on May 22 on foreign travellers who have been in Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past 21 days “effective immediately.”
Fog hangs over the skyline of Montreal on Jan. 1, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.
Protesters are set to gather today in front of a private college in Montreal to protest its closure after its permit was not renewed by the Quebec government.
The Collège supérieur de Montréal is among four private colleges in the province that saw their permit suspended in recent weeks.
Some students were weeks away from graduation when they learned they would not be able to complete their studies as planned.
For the many international students attending these colleges, the closures mean their immigration status as well as their graduation are now in limbo.
The Quebec education ministry would not give details on why it had not renewed the permits, but said it had communicated with students about alternative ways to finish their studies.
The provincial immigration ministry confirmed that international students will need to submit a new request in order to keep their status, but said the processing of their request would be adapted to the situation.
Smoke from the Mooseland Road wildfire, about 100 kilometres northeast of Halifax, is shown in this handout photo on Thursday, July 16, 2026.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - N.S. Department of Natural Resources (Mandatory Credit)
A wildfire raging northeast of Halifax is being held after seeing minimal growth, the Nova Scotia government said Sunday morning.
The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources said in a post on X the Mooseland Road fire was estimated at 1,447 hectares or 14 square kilometres.
Ground crews are expected to continue suppression efforts throughout the day using heavy equipment on site. Aircraft, though available, likely won’t be needed, officials said.
Mooseland Road remains closed starting at its intersection with Highway 7. People asked to avoid the area.
The fire started earlier this week and triggered some evacuations, including about 100 cottages, cabins and homes along Moosehead Road.
Firefighting efforts have been ongoing since Wednesday, officials said.
Fans are gathering in Toronto and Vancouver today to watch the World Cup soccer final between Spain and defending champion Argentina, bringing Canada’s month-long tournament celebration to a close.
Official FIFA Fan Festivals in both World Cup host cities are expected to draw thousands for public watch parties. Bars and restaurants along Vancouver’s Granville Street and in Toronto’s Liberty Village are also preparing for large crowds.
Toronto hosted six matches and Vancouver seven during the first men’s World Cup staged across Canada, the United States and Mexico.
The tournament brought supporters from around the world to both Canadian cities and turned public spaces into soccer gathering places.
The championship match, expected to draw a global television audience of nearly two billion viewers, closes the first 48-team men’s World Cup and Canada’s role as a host of soccer’s biggest tournament.
While the World Cup wraps up today, the final cost of staging the tournament won’t be known for months. In May, Canada’s independent parliamentary budget officer estimated total hosting costs at about $1.066 billion, including $473 million in federal costs, projected costs of up to $729 million in British Columbia and $380 million in Toronto.
FILE: In this 1983 file photo, members of the British punk band The Clash are shown. From left, Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Terry Chimes.
(AP File Photo)
For decades, Terminator X was the backbone of Public Enemy’s hard-hitting, politically aware, socially conscious hip-hop.
His DJ skills and scratching were an essential part of the group’s sound. Onstage, he anchored the band’s visual image as Chuck D, Flavor Flav and the rest of the group pummeled audiences with their rhymes and flows. His work with Public Enemy ended in 1998 and he retired fully from the music industry the following year. What did he do next?
Emus. As in the big, fast, flightless birds from Australia. Terminator X went back to being Norman Rogers, his legal name, and devoted time to his emu farm on a 15-acre ranch in Vance County, N.C., launching one of the more interesting second acts in life. His emu stewardship lasted until the early 2000s and might have gone on longer had it not been for the damage caused by a hurricane. The emus are gone and the property is now populated by goats. Terminator X is back to DJing, but entirely on his own terms.
He’s not the only musician to have made a dramatic career change. Let’s have a look at a few other second acts.
Jim Martin (Faith No More)
Martin was a guitarist with Faith No More during their great run in the late ’80s and early ’90s. But by 1993, his relationship with the other members of the group had deteriorated and he was fired. All he’d ever done was be a musician. What was he going to do now? He found his answer in growing giant pumpkins. Competitively.
It all began with a gardening experiment when he decided to buy some pumpkin seeds near his home in Castro Valley, Calif. He had an open patch of yard. Why not raise a few pumpkins? He could sell them at Halloween and maybe make a few pies along the way. At some point, though, Martin became determined to grow the biggest pumpkins he could. Starting in 2000, he got very serious about it to the point where he entered his biggest fruits/vegetables (depending on the context, pumpkins can be classified as either) in contests. His best year was 2005, when he grew one that tipped the scales at 1,087 pounds. At one point, Martin was one of the five greatest giant pumpkin growers in America.
Brian Cox (D:REAM)
The problem with being in a boy band is that you and your fans grow older. What’s a now old boy-bander to do? In the case of Brian Cox, he needed something to do after his time in the English group D:REAM came to an end. In between albums and tours, he studied physics at the University of Manchester. When the band died in 1997, he continued his education, earning a doctorate in philosophy. He also became fascinated with high-energy particle physics.
As a physicist, Cox has held prestigious scientific chairs, written a number of books and worked with the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Cox is now a world-renowned pop physicist on the level of Neil deGrasse Tyson, who continues to host TV shows and documentaries for the BBC and others. Explaining the mysteries of quantum mechanics in layman’s terms is about as far as you can get from being in a fluffy dance band.
Terry Chimes (The Clash)
If you look at the liner notes on the first Clash album, you’ll find the drummer listed as “Tory Crimes.” He’d cycle in and out of The Clash several times over their existence and, when he wasn’t with them, he was playing drums for Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, in Billy Idol‘s band, and even found work with Black Sabbath for a while during the non-Ozzy years.
Being a drummer can be extremely hard on the body, and Chimes learned the benefits of things like massage, stretching and, above all, chiropractic treatments. He’d developed such an interest in biology and physiology that when he felt that his body could no longer take the punishment of being a drummer, he dumped everything and studied to become a chiropractor himself. By 1994, he had retired from music and opened his own clinic in Essex. That one office later expanded into a chain. He now gives clinics on chiropractic methods and alternative medicine.
If that wasn’t enough, he experienced a spiritual awakening around 2000, which prompted a strong devotion to Catholicism, leading to work with the Church. Again, this is a guy who came up through the ranks of British punk rock and was a member of Black Sabbath.
Dan Spitz (Anthrax)
Anthrax is one of the Big Four of metal bands that have influenced countless others. Dan Spitz joined up in 1983 as lead guitarist, a job that lasted 15 years. But that was enough. His new passion was horology: the study, making and repair of timepieces. Spitz went deep, winning a scholarship to a Swiss watchmaking school, becoming certified as a “mechanical complications specialist” and earning various degrees in micro-mechanical engineering.
He eventually opened his own watch services, attracting clients and their Patek Phillipe, Audemars Piguet, Rolex and Richard Mille watches. He also became an instructor for watchmaker Chopard.
Robert Dean (Japan)
Japan’s best years were in the late ’70s and early ’80s when they acquired a reputation as one of Britain’s more interesting post-punk bands. But after three albums serving as their lead guitarist, Robert Dean became disenchanted with the band’s direction and quit. Dean turned to studio work (Gary Numan, ABC, Peter Gabriel) and was a collaborator with Sinéad O’Connor. Then he disappeared. Where did he go?
Costa Rica. He moved to the rainforest to decompress and indulge in his love of wildlife. He began watching the birds of the jungle carefully and then started painting them. At last word, Dean is living in Monteverde as an established and admired professional ornithology writer and artist. He’s contributed to various field guides that are not only for committed bird watchers but also for scientists.
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter
This may be the biggest pivot of them all. In the early ’70s, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter was the blisteringly good guitarist for Steely Dan, tearing off amazing solos like the one we hear in the song, Reelin’ in the Years. Take a look. A long-haired hippie guitar player? Yes, but…
One day in the early ’80s, though, Baxter got to talking with his neighbour, a retired engineer who had worked on Sidewinder missiles for the American military. Baxter was hooked and threw himself into the subject of ballistic missile technology.
That’s when he noticed that there were some similarities between the high-end studio gear Steely Dan used and the hardware used by the military, such as large-capacity digital storage devices and data compression algorithms. He then wrote an academic paper on how the U.S. navy could turn its offensive Aegis anti-aircraft missile system into a defensive one. The paper was passed to a congressman who was so impressed that he floated it past some of the right people in the defence establishment.
On the strength of that paper, Baxter was quickly granted high-level security clearances. Before long, he was consulting on various military matters. Remember Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars Initiative? Baxter had a hand in that. Improving spy satellites? Baxter. Various anti-terrorism technologies employed by the U.S. Government? Baxter again.
One of the many things on his resume is Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. He’s also chairman of the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense, a member of the Director’s Strategic Red Team at MIT/Lincoln Labs and a consultant for the Global Security Sector at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He’s done corporate work for Northrop Grumman, among other defence contractors, and knows a thing or two about asymmetrical warfare.
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