Vatican firefighters have installed a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in preparation for next week’s conclave, the secretive election in which cardinals will choose a new pope.
The installation of the chimney is a key step in the lead-up to the conclave, along with officers from the Swiss Guards and the Vatican Gendarmerie, the sovereign nation’s tiny police force, sweeping the frescoed chapel for listening devices and bugs.
OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Smith vowed on Thursday to move forward with a legal challenge to Ottawa’s incoming clean electricity regulations, rekindling a fight with the just re-elected Liberal government over its decarbonization agenda.
“Today we are taking another step to protect Albertans livelihoods by challenging the constitutionality of (these) regulations in the Court of Appeal of Alberta, and we look forward to making our case,” Smith told reporters in Edmonton.
NEW
DANIELLE SMITH TEARS IN ONTARIO — SAYS EV INDUSTRY THERE IS "NON-EXISTANT"
"The trade war with China seems phony…. and western canola farmers and pork farmers are paying the price"
Gosh, the future PM of the Republic of Alberta is good. pic.twitter.com/kYPRe9qN77
— Tablesalt (@Tablesalt13) May 1, 2025
Major cancer breakthrough as NHS launches 5-minute 'super-jab' that can fight 15 types of disease
One jab fits all eh? Let's look who the shareholders are……..oh!!
https://t.co/4dVyH7wOFu via https://t.co/cfCdWOrqpz pic.twitter.com/zYbqsqt562
— Truth-Seeker84 (@TruthSeeker84x3) April 30, 2025
h/t Mauser
The amount paid by the Duke of York in an out-of-court settlement to Virginia Giuffre could become apparent as her estate is bequeathed to her estranged husband and three children.
On April 26 her family announced that Giuffre, a victim of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, had died by suicide at her home in Western Australia.
Three people stabbed at downtown Hamilton mosque; two suspects wanted
Police say a verbal altercation preceded the stabbing, which is not believed to be hate-related.
Three people are hurt and two others wanted after a stabbing at the Hamilton Downtown Mosque.
Hamilton police responded to the mosque at 221 York Blvd. for reports of a disturbance around 2:15 p.m. on Friday — just as afternoon prayers finished.
“From all the information I have, this is not a random altercation or incident, and I can confidently say it’s not related to a hate-motivated crime,” Callender said outside the mosque.
Germany defends AfD extremist classification after Rubio slams ‘tyranny in disguise’
Germany’s Foreign Office has defended a decision to classify the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as right-wing extremist, after sharp criticism from the White House.
US Vice-President JD Vance accused “bureaucrats” of rebuilding the Berlin Wall, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed the designation as “tyranny in disguise”.
In an unusual move, the foreign office directly replied to Rubio on X, writing: “We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped.”
The intelligence agency that made the classification found AfD’s “prevailing understanding of people based on ethnicity and descent” goes against Germany’s “free democratic order”.
‘Prime Minister Mark Carney will probably resurrect the Online Harms Act.’
The freight train of authoritarianism and censorship under the Carney Liberals is barrelling down the political tracks — and it’s far more serious than Alberta’s discontent within confederation or a possible sovereignty referendum.
It’s highly likely Prime Minister Mark Carney will resurrect the federal Online Harms Act Bill C-63 — a terrifying piece of legislation that will drive Canada toward the U.K.’s dystopia, where thousands have been arrested for “offensive” speech violations, primarily on social media.
Victory in Runcorn and Helsby proves that Reform didn’t just get lucky in the 2024 election: it can win more seats, it could form the next government or opposition. Many prayed the constituency was immune to Farage because the old majority was so large and it’s so close to Labour-loving Liverpool – but the narrow steal indicates that, within England at least, there’s no no-go area for Reform.
Anecdotally, it seems Labour was hurt by slashing winter fuel and Pips. The problem isn’t just the cuts themselves but the perception of lying – that Labour won its majority on the promise to be different, only to reimpose austerity.
England local election results 2025
EDINBURGH — Imagine the scene that would have greeted any poor Scot who wandered off the street in Edinburgh to find himself in the middle of the annual British Association of Canadian Studies conference. Yes, there really is such a thing as the British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS) and 2025 is its 50th anniversary.
BACS is the well-worn but admirable remnants of the kind of soft power Canadian governments used to try to exercise — by getting people in other countries talking about Canada and encouraging academic links across the ocean.
U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged European Union member states and their allies to work towards a “lasting peace” and end the war in Ukraine. This means Europe must both commit tangible resources to the goal and show clear political resolve.
This renewed pressure from the Trump administration came in a meeting between Rubio and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Thursday, May 1st. According to Rubio, President Donald Trump remains committed to ending the “senseless bloodshed.” The two met in Washington for talks—described as centred upon advancing “on the path toward peace in Ukraine.”
A Yemeni accused of trying to leave Canada to join a terrorist group appeared in court north of Toronto on Thursday for a bail hearing.
Husam Taha Ali Al-Sewaiee, 32, was arrested by RCMP national security officers on April 19 and remains in custody.
He has not been charged with any crimes.
The priest would prefer that the ghosts of his community’s violent past are laid to rest. Every family in Maaloula — where Christian and Muslim neighbours were riven by bloodshed — has a deeply personal memory of the civil war: a killing, an abduction, a disappearance; displacement, grief and loss.
In the interests of reconciliation Father Fadi Barkil believes it may be better to forgive and forget.
Yet as word of the latest sectarian violence against the Druze community in Syria spreads, fears for the future keep Maaloula’s ghosts of the past alive.
The 2025 federal election delivered a fourth consecutive Liberal government under Mark Carney—but not the majority many expected. And the key reason? An underwhelming performance in the suburbs of the Greater Toronto Area, where the party lost six seats, or seven if you count the new riding of Milton East–Halton Hills South. The Conservatives made significant gains, especially in York Region, and those losses cost the Liberals their shot at majority territory.
That result stings for a party that improved its vote share across Ontario and benefited from a collapsed NDP vote. So, what happened?
Economists, commentators and casual observers alike predicted that the election of Prime Minister Mark Carney would do the economy more harm than good — and it seems that they’re already being proven right.
On Tuesday, Fitch Ratings, one of the great deciders of how much interest Canada pays on its debt, flapped a warning flag in our faces for electing Prime Minister Mark Carney the night before.
Carney and co. will rape Canada.
Last week, Bill Owens, the executive producer of CBS’ flagship news program 60 Minutes, resigned, “citing encroachments on his journalistic independence,” per The New York Times. In the first show since the news of Owens’ resignation broke, 60 Minutes ended the program with a glowing, if dubious, tribute to Owens that has since gone viral online. The program took the unusual step of alleging unethical behavior by CBS’ corporate parent Paramount for Owens’ resignation, though they didn’t present any direct evidence of this. And the facts suggest that Owens isn’t exactly the paragon of integrity he’s being made out to be.
