Some 20 million watch primetime hearing of House 1/6 panel

Max Parrot lands bronze but actor-turned-snowboarder Su Yiming takes big air spotlight

Su Yiming, a precocious Chinese teenager, truly exploded with supernova brilliance on Tuesday, writes Rosie DiManno.

Beware invasive, ‘frightening’ waterhemp

There’s a threat lurking on the edge of Manitoba farmers’ fields this fall that’s even scarier than the escalating trade war with their biggest customer.

Provincial extension advisers are warning farmers to watch for a weed known as “tall waterhemp,” which, true to its name, may already be towering above ready-to-harvest crops.

Those wispy tentacles waving in the breeze look pretty innocuous from a distance. But this highly invasive member of the pigweed family produces hundreds of thousands of seeds that are just itching for dispersal through farmers’ combines and across their fields.

Each of those tiny seeds — one small pill container filled halfway holds 44,000 — can produce plants with stems the width of saplings and heights of two to five metres. One or two plants can quickly turn into a patch. If waterhemp takes over a field, it can choke out the growing crop and cut yields by more than 90 per cent.

Sinclair named Canada’s columnist of the year

Winnipeg Free Press Indigenous writer Niigaan Sinclair has been named Canada’s best columnist, winning a distinguished National Newspaper Award, which was presented at a gala in Toronto Friday evening.

Sinclair, who is Anishinaabe, joined the Free Press as a regular columnist in June 2018. Sinclair, who is on sabbatical from his job as an associate professor at the University of Manitoba, writes about Indigenous issues.

In accepting the award, Sinclair said it was his childhood dream to write for the Free Press. He said Winnipeg is the centre of reconciliation in Canada, calling it “the most imperfect city, but the most perfect.”

“I’m honoured to receive the National Newspaper Award for column writing, the same award Richard Wagamese received in 1990. It’s a testament to the incredible support and belief the Free Press has in me, and also how critically important the conversations and issues in Winnipeg are for the national stage.”

Port of Churchill expansion could chase belugas away, U of M researcher says

As plans to expand the Port of Churchill into a four-season trade corridor gathers momentum, a University of Manitoba researcher has published a report on what ship traffic could mean for the beluga whales that gather in the Churchill River estuary each summer.

Veronica Coppolaro said more vessels in the waterways bring a risk that belugas will stop using the estuary for migration, which would impact the ecological landscape, tourism and communities that rely on the animals for food and cultural purposes.

“There are studies showing that (noises) change the way they swim, they change the way (the whales) are vocalizing, they change their main activity, and so this (expansion) can have consequences at different levels,” she said.

The Churchill river estuary is a marine habitat where the Churchill River empties into Hudson Bay. During the summer months belugas gather in the area to feed and give birth.

Why is Cuba embracing freer markets?

As long as Donald Trump is entangled in a war with Iran, Cuba is probably safe from being next on his hit list.

But if the mercurial U.S. president can somehow extricate himself from the Persian Gulf trap, then all bets are off. One thing is certain: Trump is not going to give up the idea of getting his greedy hands on the Caribbean island.

In response to Trump’s threats of military invasion, the beleaguered Cuban government is understandably in full panic mode. Right now, it is just trying desperately to keep its head above water as the situation on the ground in Cuba deteriorates further with each passing day.

Not all of the blame for the country’s current humanitarian crisis can be laid at the feet of the Trump White House. The Cuban political leadership deserves its fair share of blame for poor economic and financial management, for too much emphasis on expanding the tourism market, and for not enough attention on modernizing the electrical grid and attracting much-needed foreign investment.

Mourinho’s return to Real Madrid a classic rebound

Not quite a month ago, nearly two million people lined the streets of Madrid to see the World Cup paraded by the Spanish national team. It might as well have been another lifetime.

By the time the Plaza de Cibeles was swept up and sprayed down, the country’s attention had shifted to the only thing — or person — it seemed anyone wanted to be talking about: José Mourinho.

And they haven’t stopped talking about him. He hasn’t let them.

On June 11, the same day the World Cup kicked off in Mexico City, Mourinho was appointed head coach of Real Madrid for a second time. In his initial stint at the sport’s biggest club, which had ended 13 years prior, he’d won the Copa del Rey his first season, La Liga in his second and nothing in his third.