Life & Style – Winnipeg Free Press

Adolescence about far more than troubled teens

AV Kitching 6 minute read 3:00 AM CDT

I finished watching Adolescence this week, the groundbreaking Netflix crime drama that’s got parents panicking and influencers pontificating.

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Canadian scientist wins Breakthrough Prize for discovery of hormone used in Ozempic, Mounjaro

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press 9 minute read Preview

Canadian scientist wins Breakthrough Prize for discovery of hormone used in Ozempic, Mounjaro

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press 9 minute read 5:30 PM CDT

TORONTO - A Canadian researcher has won a 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for discovering the GLP-1 hormone used in diabetes and obesity medications — including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro — that have changed the lives of millions of people around the world.

Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist and a clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health, shares the US$3 million prize with four colleagues from the United States and Denmark.

They were all involved in the development of the now-famous drugs manufactured by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Drucker and three co-winners made discoveries about glucagon-like peptide-1 in their labs. The other recipient of the award, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, who works for Novo Nordisk, led the way in developing it into medications.

The Breakthrough Prizes, often referred to as the "Oscars of Science," were handed out Saturday in Los Angeles for categories including Fundamental Physics and Mathematics, in addition to Life Sciences.

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5:30 PM CDT

Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist and clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto, as shown in this handout photo, won a 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences on Saturday for his role in discovering the GLP-1 hormone used in Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro medications. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Dianne Matthews
*MANDATORY CREDIT*

Red, white and you

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview

Red, white and you

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

Lois Wales has an idea for how she can express her Canadian pride with plants this year. It’s an idea that has rapidly gained momentum and now everyone she talks to in her Red River North community wants to be part of it.

Wales is president of Red River North Tourism, a not-for-profit, volunteer-run organization that develops and promotes activities on behalf of the municipalities of St. Andrews, Selkirk and St. Clements.

“I was thinking about what I personally could do to show my Canadian pride, so I decided I will plant red and white geraniums with a Canadian flag in the centre of my containers for my front steps,” says Wales. “Then I remembered my mom talking about Victory Gardens during the (Second World War) and I thought, why can’t we plant Sovereignty Gardens?”

Planting an extra row of vegetables and donating the harvest to food banks, soup kitchens or whoever is in need is what makes us Canadians, says Wales. “We take care of our neighbours.”

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2:00 AM CDT

Ball Horticultural photo
This classic combo features a white planter with red and white geraniums for summer-long colour and vitality.

Canada updates travel guidance for U.S., warning of heightened scrutiny at the border

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Canada updates travel guidance for U.S., warning of heightened scrutiny at the border

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: 5:22 PM CDT

Canada has updated its advice to those travelling to the United States, warning travellers they may face "scrutiny" from border guards and the possibility of detention if denied entry.

An updated advisory issued Friday by Global Affairs Canada urges Canadians crossing the U.S. border to be forthcoming with officials in that country and to expect scrutiny that could extend to searches of electronic devices.

The updated advisory notes that if denied entry to the U.S., citizens could be detained while awaiting deportation if they fail to meet entry exit requirements.

"Individual border agents often have significant discretion in making those determinations," the advisory said. "Expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices. Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities."

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Updated: 5:22 PM CDT

A Canada Border Services officer hands passports back to a visitor entering Canada from Vermont at the Highway 55 Port of Entry in Stanstead, Que., on Thursday, March 13, 2025. Canadians are facing a new travel advisory regarding travel to the U.S., warning about

Toronto FC hurting in the backline ahead of game against league-leading Inter Miami

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Toronto FC hurting in the backline ahead of game against league-leading Inter Miami

The Canadian Press 2 minute read 4:37 PM CDT

FORT LAUDERDALE - Toronto FC is hurting on defence for Sunday's MLS game at unbeaten Inter Miami.

TFC will be missing injured defenders Richie Laryea, Zane Monlouis and Henry Wingo as well as wingback Tyrese Spicer and forward Deandre Kerr.

On the plus side, veteran centre back Kevin Long returned to training this week after missing last weekend's scoreless draw with visiting Vancouver due to a hamstring issue. And Sigurd Rosted and Nicksoen Gomis, who both started in the backline last week with Wingo, are healthy.

Coming into weekend play, Toronto (0-4-2) had conceded a league-worst 12 goals.

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4:37 PM CDT

Toronto FC defender Henry Wingo, left, and Orlando City forward Iván Angulo fight for the ball during the second half of an MLS soccer match, Saturday, March 1, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Kevin Kolczynski)

Infidelity for the social media age: What is microcheating, and is it a big deal?

Albert Stumm, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Infidelity for the social media age: What is microcheating, and is it a big deal?

Albert Stumm, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 11:04 PM CDT

Liking a co-worker’s photo on social media. Sending them direct messages. Checking in on Slack more often than before.

Progressively interacting in this way with someone outside your relationship may be no big deal to you. To your significant other, however, it may be microcheating, which some people consider a form of infidelity because it can involve building a bond one heart emoji at a time.

Although pushing the boundaries of what’s allowed in a relationship is not a new concept, the issue has become even more common with the rise of remote work, said William Schroeder, a therapist and owner of Just Mind Counseling centers in Austin, Texas.

“People are having more digital relationships so it kind of creates more space for that,” Schroeder said. “In this work-from-home environment, it can happen even easier because it’s real low risk.”

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Yesterday at 11:04 PM CDT

A woman checks social media on her phone in Barcelona Spain on March 25, 2025. (Albert Stumm via AP)

‘We are not the gods’: Fire-torn Jasper prepares for diminished summer tourism season

Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

‘We are not the gods’: Fire-torn Jasper prepares for diminished summer tourism season

Matthew Scace, The Canadian Press 5 minute read 7:00 AM CDT

JASPER, ALTA. - Every summer for 61 years, tourists have piled onto Jasper’s SkyTram to see the boomerang-shaped town nestled inside the sprawling Rocky Mountains. It'll happen again this summer, but the view will be different.

The red cable cars will skim over thousands of trees poking up from the ground like charred matchsticks. From the top, a third of the town’s structures have vanished from sight.

It doesn't change that Jasper is still open for business, and that’s what matters as the town prepares for its first summer since a runaway wildfire ripped through it last July.

“There are certainly positive signs, but we won’t be back to 100 per cent – that is clear,” said Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland.

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7:00 AM CDT

Police and Park rangers wait for residents at the park gates on the first day residents are able to visit their Jasper, Alta., properties on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. Every summer for 61 years, tourists have piled onto Jasper’s SkyTram to see the town nestled inside the sprawling Rocky Mountains. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken

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Massive wandering polar bear visits Labrador and Quebec during spring feeding tour

The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Massive wandering polar bear visits Labrador and Quebec during spring feeding tour

The Canadian Press 3 minute read Updated: 2:29 PM CDT

ST. JOHN'S - Walter Bolger had to hit the brakes for an unusual roadblock in southern Labrador this week.

The 62-year-old seal harvester was driving with his wife in West Saint Modeste, N.L., on Thursday when a massive polar bear strolled casually across the road toward a clutch of houses.

The lumbering animal then helped himself to a snack from a garbage can, undeterred by panicked yells from an elderly neighbour. Bolger honked his horn a few times, but that didn't help either, he said.

"He's his own boss," Bolger said in an interview. He estimated the bear would be close to 10 feet tall if it stood up on its hind legs.

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Updated: 2:29 PM CDT

A polar bear is seen wandering in the southern Labrador community of Capstan Island on Thursday April 3, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO Colleen Cary **MANDATORY CREDIT**

Layoffs threaten US firefighter cancer registry, mine research and mask lab

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Layoffs threaten US firefighter cancer registry, mine research and mask lab

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 7 minute read Updated: 3:11 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Government staffing cuts have gutted a small U.S. health agency that aims to protect workers — drawing rebukes from firefighters, coal miners, medical equipment manufacturers and a range of others.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a Cincinnati-based agency that is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is losing about 850 of its approximately 1,000 employees, according to estimates from a union and affected employees. Among those ousted were its director, Dr. John Howard, who had been in the job through three previous presidential administrations.

The layoffs are stalling — and perhaps ending — many programs, including a firefighter cancer registry and a lab that is key to certifying respirators for many industries.

The cuts are “a very pointed attack on workers in this country,” said Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the union local representing NIOSH employees in Cincinnati.

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Updated: 3:11 PM CDT

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2001 photo, firefighters work beneath destroyed mullions, the vertical struts which once faced the outer walls of the World Trade Center towers, after a terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Sierra Leone declared an emergency over a powerful synthetic drug but women were left behind

Caitlin Kelly, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Sierra Leone declared an emergency over a powerful synthetic drug but women were left behind

Caitlin Kelly, The Associated Press 7 minute read 1:42 AM CDT

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — At a vast landfill in Sierra Leone 's capital of Freetown, smoke billows over decades of decomposing waste. Zainab sits there, squinting through the soot. It is her usual spot for buying kush, a cheap synthetic drug ravaging young people in the country.

“This kush is so addictive," she said. "If I don’t smoke, I feel sick.”

Her current home, a shack of corrugated iron, contains only a tattered mattress where she brings her clients as a sex worker. She uses her income to sustain her drug addiction.

She is one of many women in Sierra Leone who, as a result of social factors that include living conditions and stigma, have not benefited from intervention efforts after the government a year ago declared a public health emergency over rampant kush abuse. The declaration was meant to enforce criminal, public health and prevention measures to reverse the trend in Sierra Leone, as kush spreads to other parts of West Africa. The drug has been seized in Gambia, Senegal and Guinea.

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1:42 AM CDT

Zainab Sakoteh sits in the Kingtom landfill in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Thursday, March 13, 2025, a place she frequents to meet the cartel that provide her with Kush. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)

Voices from coal country say closures of MSHA offices will endanger mine safety

John Raby And Leah Willingham, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Voices from coal country say closures of MSHA offices will endanger mine safety

John Raby And Leah Willingham, The Associated Press 7 minute read Yesterday at 11:08 PM CDT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Retired coal miner Stanley “Goose” Stewart questions whether it's safe for anyone to work in the industry right now.

The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk, has been targeting federal agencies for spending cuts. That includes terminating leases for three dozen offices in the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the agency responsible for enforcing mine safety laws.

The proposals for MSHA are “idiotic,” Stewart said, and would give coal companies “the green light to do as they please.”

Safety laws and their enforcement played a significant role before and after the Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia blew up 15 years ago Saturday, killing 29 of Stewart's co-workers.

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Yesterday at 11:08 PM CDT

Singer Rara Sekar draws inspiration from nature, encourages people to return to simple living

Rodney Muhumuza And Vickram Sombu, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Singer Rara Sekar draws inspiration from nature, encourages people to return to simple living

Rodney Muhumuza And Vickram Sombu, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 1:39 AM CDT

OXFORD, England (AP) — Rara Sekar closed her eyes in meditation after performing a song that speaks of rays of light that cut through the fog as one political prisoner faced death more than six decades ago.

The song, which recalls a period of political turmoil in Indonesia, has become a symbol for the singer who has focused on encouraging people to be creative in responding to the climate crisis in Indonesia, her homeland.

The prisoner’s song is “very healing," Sekar told The Associated Press after performing Thursday at the Skoll World Forum, an annual event focused on ideas for change on issues ranging from climate change to health and human rights. "When I find myself hopeless doing climate activism, or other activism, I sing it.”

Sekar’s campaign for a healthy environment in Indonesia focuses on a return to “low-waste life,” which includes foraging in the forest for wild food and communal potlucks. Between 2022 and 2023, she organized bicycle rides on the island of Java, where erosion and flooding have engulfed homes, that she said were meant to show locals the joys of communing with nature.

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Updated: 1:39 AM CDT

Rara Sekar, who goes by hara, performs during a session at the Skoll World Forum on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Oxford, England. (AP Photo/Vickram Sombu)

You shouldn’t buy a piece of a saint. Catholic Church denounces online sale of Carlo Acutis relics

Silvia Stellacci And Giovanna Dell'orto, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

You shouldn’t buy a piece of a saint. Catholic Church denounces online sale of Carlo Acutis relics

Silvia Stellacci And Giovanna Dell'orto, The Associated Press 6 minute read 12:05 AM CDT

ASSISI, Italy (AP) — With the upcoming canonization of its first millennial saint, the Catholic Church has turned to police in Italy to investigate the online sale of some purported relics of Carlo Acutis, who already has been drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to his shrine.

Since the early days of the faith, many Catholics have prayed for intercession to saints’ relics — usually small parts of their body or clothing that are authenticated by ecclesiastical authorities and preserved in churches. But their sale is strictly forbidden.

“It’s not just despicable, but it’s also a sin,” said the Rev. Enzo Fortunato, who leads the Vatican’s World Children’s Day committee and has a tiny fragment of Acutis’ hair in a chapel by his office for veneration by visiting youth. “Every kind of commerce over faith is a sin.”

An anonymous seller had put up for online auction some supposedly authenticated locks of Acutis' hair that were fetching upward of 2,000 euros ($2,200 US), according to the Diocese of Assisi, before being taken down. Last month, Bishop Domenico Sorrentino asked authorities to confiscate the items and added that if fraudulent, the sale would constitute a “great offense to religious belief.”

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12:05 AM CDT

A man looks at the heart relic of Carlo Acutis, the 15-year-old Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia and beatified in 2020, at the San Rufino Cathedral in Assisi, Italy, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Rising rivers and flash floods hit already waterlogged US communities

Bruce Schreiner And Obed Lamy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Rising rivers and flash floods hit already waterlogged US communities

Bruce Schreiner And Obed Lamy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: 4:18 PM CDT

DYERSBURG, Tennessee. (AP) — Another round of torrential rain and flash flooding came Saturday for parts of the South and Midwest already heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that also spawned some deadly tornadoes.

Day after day of heavy rains have pounded the central U.S., rapidly swelling waterways and prompting a series of flash flood emergencies in Missouri, Texas and Arkansas. The National Weather Service said 45 river locations in multiple states were expected to reach major flood stage, with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

At least seven people were killed as the tornadoes destroyed entire neighborhoods, with more twisters possible in places this weekend. Flooding killed at least two more in Kentucky -- 9-year-old boy swept away Friday on his way to school, and a 74-year-old whose body was found Saturday inside a fully submerged vehicle in Nelson County, authorities said.

And interstate commerce is affected — the extreme flooding across a corridor that includes the major cargo hubs in Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis could lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

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Updated: 4:18 PM CDT

Floodwaters cover Kentucky Route 39 in Lincoln County, Ky., on Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader via AP)

Things to know about the US Mine Safety and Health Administration and the coal industry

John Raby And Leah Willingham, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Things to know about the US Mine Safety and Health Administration and the coal industry

John Raby And Leah Willingham, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 11:12 PM CDT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration is among the federal agencies selected for spending cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly three dozen MSHA offices would have their leases terminated if the plans come to fruition.

MSHA is responsible for enforcing U.S. mine safety laws. DOGE was created by President Donald Trump and is run by Elon Musk.

Where are the MSHA offices being considered for closure?

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Yesterday at 11:12 PM CDT

FILE - A miner gathers his thought before taking part in a rescue mission, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006, in Tallmansville, W.Va. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool, File)

Singh seeks to boost NDP’s flagging fortunes in Atlantic Canada

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Singh seeks to boost NDP’s flagging fortunes in Atlantic Canada

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Updated: 6:00 PM CDT

ST. JOHN'S - NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh wrapped up the second week of the federal election campaign in Atlantic Canada, a region where his party seems poised to come up empty-handed for the second time in a row.

On Saturday, Singh targeted two ridings where New Democrats' roots run deep. He spent the morning in St. John’s, N.L., where party stalwart Jack Harris held a seat on and off for nine years from 2008 until his retirement in 2021.

Later in the day he met with volunteers in Halifax, a seat held for nearly two decades by former NDP leader Alexa McDonough and well-known former MP Megan Leslie.

The two ridings may be the party’s best shot on the East Coast when Canadians go to the polls on April 28, but both went Liberal in the last election, when the NDP was entirely shut out of Atlantic Canada. Polls currently suggest they could stay that way.

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Updated: 6:00 PM CDT

April 5, 2025

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