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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday fired Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces and named his replacement, following days of mass protests in Kyiv, the country’s capital, and other cities nationwide demanding his removal.

It was the second major reversal Zelenskyy has made under street pressure, after protests last summer forced him to undo a law weakening Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs.

Zelenskyy appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new army chief, according to a statement on social media.

“Our shared wish is one — victory over the enemy and conditions at the front and in pressure on Russia that would force Russia toward peace,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader said he made the decision after a series of meetings with military commanders. They began shortly after protests broke out demanding the reinstatement of former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, seen by demonstrators as a driver of military modernization, and the removal of Syrskyi, who they said embodied the army’s old, Soviet-style command culture.

Zelenskyy thanks outgoing army chief

Zelenskyy thanked Syrskyi for his achievements in Ukraine’s fight against Russia and praised him for the defence of Kyiv and for operations in Kharkiv and Kursk.

“I am grateful to Oleksandr Syrskyi and to every one of our warriors for Ukraine’s strong front-line positions,” he said. “I am grateful to Mykhailo Drapatyi for holding that same view.”

Drapatyi wrote in a Facebook post that serving Ukraine “has always been an honour for me, and during this war for independence, it means absolute responsibility.” He thanked Syrskyi for his consistent work strengthening the Ukrainian military.

“I grew up in it,” he said, referring to the army. “I will work responsibly, with focus and with respect for the people defending our state today.”

Zelenskyy said Drapatyi and other commanders must present an updated defence strategy, including continued reform of the corps system, faster weapons and drone deliveries, stronger air defence against Russian strikes and a clearer mobilization plan.

Evhen, who goes by the call sign Lt. Stus, is a company commander in the 93rd Battalion stationed in the Donetsk region. He welcomed the announcement, saying much of the military has been waiting for the change.

“The new commander-in-chief inherits an army that is not in the best condition and whose morale is far from ideal,” he told CBC News on Wednesday.

“One thing Syrskyi failed to do was stop constantly mixing brigades together — taking battalions from one brigade and attaching them to another. The corps system never really started functioning the way it was originally intended,” Evhen said.

“That’s probably the first challenge [Drapatyi] has to address.”

He added that among the many issues that need to be addressed is exhaustion and burnout.

“When military personnel see that things are improving, their mental state will get better, and so will their resilience. War is war, and troops still have capacity left — I’m more than sure of that — but pushing things to extremes is undesirable,” he said.

Fedorov voices approval

Zelenskyy met separately with Fedorov on Tuesday and offered him what he called a respected position in government that would unify the country’s technology sector. It wasn’t clear if Fedorov accepted the offer, or if the latest moves would satisfy protesters.

Fedorov congratulated Drapatyi, calling the appointment “new hope in the fight of free people for freedom and justice” and “a voice for change that could not go unheard.”

Fedorov had criticized Syrskyi publicly before his dismissal, saying the general was blocking his reform efforts and needed to be replaced for Ukraine not to fail in its resistance against Russia.

He said Ukrainians’ high expectations must now be met with a clear vision for ending the war, decisive action to preserve soldiers’ lives, expand robotic warfare at the front, strike asymmetrically and exhaust Russia’s economy.

Fedorov called Syrskyi to thank him for defending the Kyiv region, the Kharkiv operation and other battles, calling it “already an important part of Ukraine’s history” but adding that the country must “move even faster and write new chapters, correcting all previous mistakes.”

The crisis began last Thursday, when Zelenskyy overhauled his wartime government, replacing his prime minister and firing Fedorov as defense minister after just six months in the post.

Zelenskyy cited an unworkable rift between Fedorov and Syrskyi, telling reporters that as the two couldn’t resolve their dispute, he would “have to resolve it.”

Following his dismissal, Fedorov publicly accused Syrskyi of blocking military reforms and fostering a top-down command culture, criticism that echoed complaints from soldiers and veterans over heavy casualties in costly front-line assaults.

Backlash spread to military

The reshuffle immediately drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Kyiv and other cities, framing Fedorov’s removal as Zelenskyy siding with an entrenched military old guard over a reformer.

The backlash promptly spread to the military: the Air Force’s deputy commander resigned in protest, warning the move would weaken Ukraine’s air defences; veterans and soldiers on leave joined the protests in Kyiv and other cities and numerous public figures among soldiers spoke out publicly against Syrskyi on social media.

Syrskyi has long been associated with a Soviet-style, top-down command culture, and many protesters said they wanted a new generation of generals who would place a higher priority on preserving soldiers’ lives.

Within the military, Syrskyi has earned the gruesome nickname of “Butcher,” which particularly spread during his command of the defence of Bakhmut, one of the war’s longest and costliest battles.

Syrskyi became the army’s commander in chief in February 2024, replacing Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who subsequently became Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Zelenskyy did not mention any new post for Syrskyi, saying he had discussed the four-star-general’s future service with him.

Ukraine has been in a state of all-out war with Russia for more than four years, after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

Guess what? Grocery rut. Guess why? Chicken thigh.

Canada’s inflation rate might have eased last month, but your grocery bill likely hasn’t. Statistics Canada’s newest consumer price index (CPI) numbers show overall inflation eased to 2.8 per cent in June as gas prices decelerated, but prices for some grocery items still went up.

The worst month-over-month offender was chicken thighs. Prices for fresh or frozen thighs jumped 8.2 per cent from May to June, according to the CPI — far above the monthly increases for the usual offenders like beef and coffee — while year on year, prices jumped 13.6 per cent compared to last June.

At the same time, prices for other grocery items that had been giving Canadians sticker shock of late — like cucumbers, tomatoes, and grapes — all dropped from May to June.

On Tuesday, a club pack of nine boneless, skinless chicken thighs cost $22.18, or $20.92 per kilogram, at a Loblaws in Toronto, according to its website.

A Walmart in North Vancouver was selling a value pack of Lillydale boneless, skinless chicken thighs for $22.48, or $18 per kilogram. And a pack of Our Compliments boneless, skinless chicken thighs was going for $20.92 per kilogram at a Halifax Sobeys.

Shoppers ‘trading down’ on protein, prof says

The price of chicken mostly comes down to demand, explains Michael von Massow, a food agriculture professor at Ontario’s University of Guelph.

Proteins in general are getting more expensive, so people are “trading down,” he said.

Chicken still doesn’t cost as much as beef, and chicken thighs still tend to be less expensive than breasts.

Any change in demand affects the price because there are only so many chicken thighs to go around, von Massow added, and only two per bird.

“You can’t snap your fingers and have more chicken.”

A beef with protein prices

Sylvain Charlebois, the director of Dalhousie University’s Agri‑Food Analytics Lab in Halifax, told CBC News he agrees that expensive beef is pushing consumers toward chicken thighs as a more affordable protein alternative.

And it’s not just thighs — nearly every part of the chicken except for breasts is getting more expensive, he added. While breast prices dropped 0.7 per cent from May to June, according to Statistics Canada, drumsticks went up 1.8 per cent.

That said, breasts are still the most expensive part of the chicken, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent retail data from May, at an average $14.58 per kilogram. Thighs were an average $13.72 per kilogram, and drumsticks were $7.29 per kilogram in May according to Statistics Canada.

Beef, by comparison, ranged from $16.07 per kilogram in May for ground beef to $35.30 per kilogram for striploin cuts, according to Statistics Canada.

“The chicken industry is under tremendous pressure because of the amped demand created by beef prices and people are looking for cheaper proteins at the meat counter,” Charlebois said.

That said, Charlebois says he was seeing prices were already starting to drop in June.

Is any protein affordable anymore?

First beef, now chicken. In the Maritimes, haddock prices have shot up. At the same time, demand for milk-based proteins like cottage cheese and Greek yogurt is soaring, and there’s a shortage of whey protein.

It may feel like there’s no affordable protein left. But von Massow says chicken supply will eventually adjust to demand.

There’s also the option of plant-based proteins, he said, but noted you need more time to prepare beans and lentils — it’s not as easy as throwing a pack of chicken thighs on the grill. And Canadians don’t seem as resilient to changing their diets as they were a few decades ago thanks to a decline in food and cooking skills, von Massow added.

Plus, people have strong preferences.

“Beef went up a whole bunch, and people maybe switched to ground beef, but they still stuck with beef,” von Massow said.

“In fact, we ate more beef last year than we did the year before.”

Two oil tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday after threats from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, as a widening Middle East conflict disrupted shipping through two of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.

The U.S. military bombed targets in Iran for an 11th straight night, saying those targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites. Tehran residents reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Wednesday as Iran activated its air defences over the capital, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that explosions rocked Bushehr, East Azerbaijan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.

Earlier, Iran targeted U.S. sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, and a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.

Iran said it had struck infrastructure belonging to Amazon in Bahrain, where the U.S. tech company operates a regional data centre. Amazon did not comment and Reuters could not verify the report.

The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, including the coast at the mouth of the Red Sea, announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday. This opened a potential new front in the war, which has killed thousands of people across the Gulf region since ​it began on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

In a letter to shippers, the Houthis threatened to ​attack any ships that load or discharge Saudi oil.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Houthis had not yet shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the “Gate of Tears” leading into the Red Sea, and he threatened to act against them if they did.

“If something like that happens, we take care of it,” Trump said.

18 U.S. service members now killed in war

Trump also confirmed that 18 U.S. ​service members have been killed so far, including four in Iranian attacks on U.S. military bases in Jordan and Iraq over the last few days, in a war that is ⁠unpopular among Americans and others affected by surging global energy ⁠costs.

The Houthi announcement already appeared to be having an impact. Two tankers, which just loaded Saudi crude bound for China ‌and India at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, made U-turns on Tuesday, heading toward the Suez Canal rather than out through the Bab el-Mandeb and toward the Indian Ocean.

With the war shutting the Strait of Hormuz leading out of the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea has served as the main alternative route out for millions of barrels of Saudi oil per day, diverted by pipeline ⁠through Yanbu.

Oil prices rose more than two per cent on Tuesday, with Brent crude hovering above $91 US a barrel and U.S. gasoline back over $4 US a gallon.

Trump renews threat to strike nuclear sites

U.S. Central Command said it had hit Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems in its week and a half of attacks.

On Tuesday, Trump renewed his threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz “pretty soon.” In June 2025 he said the facility, which is buried in a mountain range, had been “totally obliterated” after the U.S. military bombed it that month. Iran promised it would retaliate.

Fifty civilians have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent U.S. strikes on Iran, a health ministry official said.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told senators during a hearing that the conflict, which Congress has not authorized, had cost $37.5 billion US ​so far, and he asked them to approve another $70 billion US in “supplemental” funds, in part to replenish depleted missile supplies.

Testing limits of escalation

The U.S. and Iran have been testing the limits of escalation since the collapse this month of a weeks-old interim ceasefire agreement.

Iran launched renewed attacks on Tuesday across the Persian Gulf, where ⁠recent strikes on desalination facilities have raised concerns about water shortages in desert countries that depend almost entirely on removing salt from sea water for potable supplies.

Kuwait said it was responding to a drone and missile attack on Tuesday. Kuwait ⁠has reported attacks that have damaged power generation in recent days at plants that also produce fresh water.

Iranian state media reported that Iranian forces also launched attacks on U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

The ⁠maritime security agency ⁠UKMTO said on Tuesday a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz reported being struck by ​a projectile, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel and board a lifeboat.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said two oil tankers caught fire after explosions while attempting to transit the southern shipping lane of the strait.

The U.S. has encouraged ships ​to use the southern lane. Iran demands they use an alternative ⁠northern route near its coast instead, where it eventually aims to charge fees for transit.

Throughout the war, Saudi Arabia partially escaped the shipping disruption by piping oil to Yanbu on the Red Sea instead. But a full closure of that alternative route by the Houthis could further reduce global oil supply as it would leave most Saudi oil exports trapped.

Though last week’s fatal black bear attack that killed a Saskatchewan couple came just months after another death involving a bear in the province, experts say such fatal attacks are still extremely rare.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Community Safety confirmed last week that a black bear was involved in the deaths of Jay and Deb MacDonald after their bodies were found near McTavish Lake, a remote, fly-in area of the province about 90 kilometres north of La Ronge.  

The couple’s deaths come less than three months after Hrishikesh Koloth, 27, was killed in another black bear attack at a remote uranium exploration site in northeast Saskatchewan — the fourth known fatality resulting from a bear encounter in the province’s history. 

In 2020, 44-year-old Stephanie Blais was killed near her family’s cabin north of Buffalo Narrows, about 220 kilometres northwest of La Ronge.

The first known bear mauling deaths in the province happened when two men were killed in separate incidents in 1983 near Nipawin Provincial Park, which is now called Narrow Hills Provincial Park.

An academic paper on bear attacks out of Lakehead University found that in all of Canada, there had been 39 fatalities involving encounters with bears between 1990 and 2023. Seventeen of those were grizzly bear attacks, while the other 22 involved black bears.

While cases like this are few and far between, they are more likely to happen in remote areas, said Doug Clark, a bear expert at the University of Saskatchewan.

“Up until this year, conventional wisdom would have said they’re pretty rare in Saskatchewan. And it is still, in the grand scheme of things,” he said. 

Michael Runtz, a retired associate professor of biology at Ottawa’s Carleton University, says that despite seeing hundreds of black bears over the years, often in remote areas of Ontario, he’s “never yet been attacked by a black bear.”

Bears attack when looking for food: expert

Runtz says black bears are typically considered less aggressive than grizzly bears.

“Black bears tend to be more retiring, more shy, generally speaking, and for that reason, black bear attacks are quite rare.”

According to Runtz, when these attacks happen, they tend to be large male bears acting in a predatory manner.

In most cases, he says the reason for the attack is that the bear is generally healthy and “just trying to access a new source of food, which would be a human.”

Clark suspects the time of year could have played a factor in the spate of deadly bear attacks in Saskatchewan. He noted that in May, there was still about a metre of snow in the bush at the site of the first attack.

“It’s hard not to wonder if there’s a link there between food availability,” he said. “That’s going to stress bears.”

Conservation officers sent to the scene of the recent attack in Saskatchewan located and euthanized a bear suspected to be involved in the deaths of Jay and Deb MacDonald, the province said in a news release.

The carcass is being transported to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, where a necropsy will be conducted, the release said.

The results will provide officials with more information on what condition the bear was in, Clark says, and give a better sense of what led to the attack.

Safety tips

As rare as these attacks are, Clark says people should be extra cautious when heading into remote areas of the province where bears are more common.

“If you’re flying in somewhere, that’s when you might encounter a bear that is likelier, for whatever reason, to display this kind of [predatory] behaviour,” he said.

If people do happen to encounter a black bear, Runtz advises them not to try to run away “and certainly do not play dead, as has been recommended for grizzly bears.”

Instead, he suggests backing away slowly while doing whatever you can to make yourself appear bigger and more aggressive, such as shouting, raising your arms or even throwing things at the bear. 

Both Runtz and Clark also recommend that people carry bear spray. 

U.S. President Donald Trump is imposing new tariffs on Canadian exports under a section of law that has never been used since it was put on the books in 1930.

The unprecedented nature of Trump’s move raises the possibility it will face a court challenge — not by Canada, but by a U.S. importer forced to pay the new 50 per cent tariffs.

However, if the tariffs actually come into effect and are challenged in court, it’s anything but certain that such a legal case would succeed, according to experts in trade law.

Is Trump on more solid legal ground?

The legislation Trump is using explicitly gives the president the power to impose tariffs of up to 50 per cent on goods from a foreign country that has engaged in trade practices that discriminate against the U.S.

Trump’s proclamations announcing the tariffs clearly lay out the case that Canada has done just that, says Simon Lester, a non-resident fellow of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

“I think it would be difficult to bring a successful challenge in U.S. court,” Lester said Tuesday on his international economic law and policy blog.

Lester and other trade law experts say Trump appears to be on more solid legal ground than he was with the tariffs that were ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February.

The new tariffs are based on Section 338 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, named for the Republican lawmakers who sponsored the Depression-era bill.

Is Canada putting the U.S. at a disadvantage?

Section 338 is focused on “discrimination by foreign countries,” defined as when a trading partner takes any actions that “place the commerce of the United States at a disadvantage.”

Trump’s proclamations say Canada is putting the U.S. at a disadvantage in three ways:

• Banning the import and distribution of U.S. alcohol products in eight provinces.
• Limiting U.S. dairy products access to the Canadian market.
• Capping certain U.S. vehicle exports to Canada.

While Canadian officials might argue that the actions are justified as retaliation against Trump’s launching the trade war, Lester says the law says nothing about justifiable discrimination.

“If discrimination exists, the President can impose tariffs under Section 338,” he wrote.

John Veroneau, a former deputy U.S. trade representative now with the D.C. law firm Covington & Burling LLP, says Section 338 has fewer limitations and procedural requirements than other tariff laws.

“I suspect it may well be challenged if, in fact, the tariffs go into place,” Veroneau told CBC News Network on Tuesday.

How successful that challenge would be, he’s not yet sure. 

Are Trump’s new tariffs just a negotiating tactic?

The new 50 per cent tariffs are due to kick in on Aug. 19, under the terms of the proclamations issued by Trump.

Veroneau says he hopes they won’t actually take effect, but are instead just being proposed by Trump to gain negotiating leverage in trade talks with Canada.

Nicolas Lamp, an associate professor in the international law program at Queen’s University, says he believes the tariffs are a negotiating ploy aimed at eliminating Canada’s leverage with the U.S.

He says that’s why those who are affected by the tariffs may not try to fight them in court.

“Any importer who might think about challenging them will probably not want to waste their money,” Lamp told CBC News.

• Should Canada hold firm on its current trade policies, including the provincial bans on U.S. alcohol, even if the tariffs go ahead? Join the conversation below or click here if you’re on the app.

West Kelowna Mounties have issued an Amber Alert for a four-year-old boy.

They say Ryan Atlas Andrews was last seen on Ridge Boulevard in West Kelowna, B.C., at 11:20 a.m. PT Tuesday.

He is described as three feet tall, 51 pounds, with short brown hair and hazel eyes.

RCMP say the boy is believed to be with the 40-year-old suspect, Alisse Andrews.

She is described as five feet, four inches tall, 121 pounds, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

They may be travelling in a Black 2021 Nissan Qashqai, with a British Columbia licence plate numbered RV003L.

Police are asking the public not to approach the suspect and to call 911 if they spot them.

Wildfires that have torched huge areas of forest and devastated small communities are also sending smoke far and wide, prompting air quality warnings in distant cities and heated political rhetoric from the U.S.

This year’s fire season has forced more than a dozen communities and areas to evacuate in recent days, including 10 First Nations communities across northern Ontario.

But it’s the smoke travelling across borders, causing hazy skies as far away as New York City, that has drawn the ire of some politicians.

U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at Canada for smoke “poisoning” American air, and even suggested the Canadian government should “pay some damages.”

At the same time, smoke from fires raging across the northwestern U.S. has made its way into B.C., as Western Canada contends with its own escalation in fire outbreaks.

With blazes across B.C., the Northwest Territories and northern Saskatchewan, the haze and smell of smoke has been hanging over cities like Edmonton and Calgary this week.

Experts who spoke with CBC News say there’s nothing particularly unusual about this summer’s smoke patterns, despite the inflammatory political discourse. But they say wildfires are getting worse, and that’s not likely to stop on either side of the border.

How does smoke from Ontario reach New York City?

The short and obvious answer is that it travels with the wind.

But Brian Wiens, research manager with the Canada Wildfire Network, says the intensity of a fire will affect just how high its smoke goes into the atmosphere and how far it’s able to travel.

“A really, really hot fire is going to send it really high into the atmosphere, which allows that smoke to travel thousands of kilometres,” he said.

“It’s not at all unusual for smoke from North American fires to travel all the way over to Europe and, similarly, fires from Eastern Asia or Russia travel all the way over into North America.”

Wiens says the smoke dilutes the further it travels from the source, but it can linger until wind flow changes or rain washes it out.

Smoke can get trapped for weeks in communities situated in deep valleys, which are common in B.C., he said.

Kent Moore, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto, says smoke from the Ontario fires has made it to Greenland.

He says all kinds of pollutants travel both ways across the Canada-U.S. border, noting as one example that Ontario gets polluted air from American coal-fired power plants.

“Pollution in general kind of moves around with the air currents and it doesn’t stop at boundaries,” he said.

Why does the sky turn orange?

Videos from city dwellers experiencing heavy smoke often show eerie, orange- or yellow-tinged skies, with people saying how they feel like they’re in a sci-fi film or an apocalyptic scenario.

Moore explains that particulates in the air cause this phenomenon by scattering blue light, allowing other colours to come through more prominently.

“Blue light, because of its wavelength, is scattered by this particulate matter in the atmosphere. Red light isn’t,” he said.

“That’s why the sun tends to appear red when we have these wildfire events, because there’s so much smoke in the air that it scatters all the blue light away.”

He compares this effect to sunsets, which often appear reddish because the sun is low and close to the horizon, so its light has a longer distance to travel to your eyes.

Can’t we just put out all the fires?

“This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to,” four Michigan Republicans wrote in a letter last week, calling out Canada for a perceived lack of action in combatting wildfires.

Setting aside that the U.S. is dealing with its own vicious wildfire season, many Americans might not understand the vastness of the northern Canadian wilderness.

“Much of Canada and many of the areas where these large fires producing smoke are burning, including in northern Ontario and in the Northwest Territories, are quite remote and not accessible,” says Jen Baron, assistant professor of fire ecology at the University of British Columbia.

“It’s not easy, or possible in many cases, to put firefighters on the ground.”

Wiens says fires that threaten human lives and infrastructure are the priority for limited firefighting resources. Serious logistical challenges — like having to fly a plane two hours to drop one load of retardant on a blaze, for example — are partly why the biggest fires usually tend to burn across unpopulated areas.

If human lives or infrastructure aren’t threatened, Wiens says, it’s simply not worth the investment to fight large fires.

“The amount of heat that’s released by a fire is so mind boggling that, basically, they come to the point where there’s nothing you can do to fight them,” Wiens said.

“The best you can to do is help nudge them one direction or the other, and of course there’s no point to doing that if it’s way in the middle of nowhere.”

Why is the problem getting worse?

All of the experts who spoke with CBC News said this year’s situation is reminiscent of 2023, when smoke from Canadian fires also drifted through the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

They all said climate change is the driving force behind the growing problems of wildfires and smoke across North America in recent years.

That’s because hot, dry and windy conditions are becoming more common as the climate warms, leading to more drought and more fuel. So when fires hit, they have the potential to burn hotter and faster.

Northern Canada, in particular, is warming faster than the global average.

“It’s not just increases in the average temperature by a couple degrees, but these really extreme heat dome events and really large drought conditions that are are driving increased fire behaviour,” Baron said. “And when fires burn more severely, they tend to produce more smoke.”

As annoying — and harmful — as smoke can be for distant city dwellers, Baron says it’s important to remember the devastation the fires are causing in communities across Canada.

“Many of them have lost significant amounts of infrastructure, have lost their communities,” she said. “As challenging as it is to be under high levels of smoke, I think it’s important to keep in mind the source of that smoke.”

A Manitoba man is relieved the province changed its tune and partially reimbursed him for an out-of-country surgery after previously refusing to pick up the tab.

Tom Molinski, 69, recently got a cheque in the mail for $23,908.99 from Manitoba Health — about a third of what he spent on a spinal fusion surgery in Germany in 2024 — after a meeting with Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara in May.

Though he isn’t being reimbursed the full $77,000 he paid out of his retirement savings, Molinski said he is glad to finally get some of the costs covered.

“If they said, ‘Well, here’s $2,000 or $3,000,’ that would have been an insult to me, so this would be a fair amount,” he told CBC News over the weekend. “I’m happy with it.”

The payment comes after a drawn-out dispute involving Molinski, Manitoba Health and the Manitoba Health Appeal Board that stretches back to before Molinski felt he had to resort to leaving the province for surgery in the first place.

Molinski’s quality of life dramatically declined over a few years to the point he could no longer pick up his young grandkids, mow the lawn or grocery shop.

He previously said his spinal pain became so severe he “had to crawl from the bedroom to the bathroom” and also suffered from incontinence. The latter is considered a severe or extreme symptom warranting interventions, including surgery, in the case of some spinal patients.

Assessment challenges

But Molinski faced a variety of barriers to care, including a set of phone calls with a physiotherapist who declined to examine him in person, he said.

“Where this whole thing went sideways is the two phone calls from the physiotherapist from the spine assessment clinic that said I wasn’t a candidate,” Molinski said. “That’s what I told the minister.”

Molinski got two second opinions — one from another Canadian jurisdiction, and another in Germany — that agreed he was a candidate for spinal fusion therapy.

He travelled to Germany for the procedure in fall 2024.

But Molinski didn’t get the required preapprovals from a local expert and Manitoba Health before doing that, so when he filed an expense claim for $77,000, Manitoba Health refused to pay.

He filed an appeal.

The Manitoba Health Appeal Board — an arm’s-length organization meant to provide some recourse for patients unhappy with certain health-care related decisions — published a decision in the case last fall that didn’t identify Molinski as the patient in question.

The board agreed Molinski’s experience navigating the Manitoba system was “deeply concerning” and that his condition “required surgery without delay.”

It identified a list of barriers that validated his reasoning for going out-of-province for care.

That included the fact Molinski didn’t have access to a local specialist, and so couldn’t get a referral to get care elsewhere. He also made attempts through his family physician, the Pan Am Pain Clinic, at a hospital and through the Manitoba Spine Clinic, the board noted.

The October 2025 decision also said Molinski’s case was unique because of the “severe impact” his “extreme deterioration” had on his quality of life and mental state, and the fact his referral took four years to address due to it being lost by his former primary care physician.

The board urged the health minister to consider reimbursing Molinski after reviewing the case in detail and asked them to respond to the board report.

The minister’s office was originally given a deadline for late December but was granted an extension.

In early May, Molinski got his second rejection letter from Manitoba Health, reiterating some of the department’s initial reasons for denying his claim, including its argument he didn’t follow requirements under the Health Services Insurance Act and related regulations.

“Dealing with these people was stressful,” Molinski said Saturday.

“The appeal board, that process was fine, but … when Health, Seniors and Long Term Care still denied it, even though the appeal board sided with me, I just couldn’t understand it.”

In an interview with CBC News after that rejection, Asagwara acknowledged there were issues with Molinski’s case. They said they planned to meet with him and were open to potentially compensating him to some degree for his troubles.

In a statement to CBC this week, a provincial spokesperson said “where there are exceptional or extenuating factors, a review may determine whether any reimbursement is appropriate.”

The figure the government arrived at is essentially what the spinal fusion procedure would’ve cost were it performed in Manitoba, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Manitobans are encouraged “to work with their health-care providers and Manitoba Health to explore treatment options and approvals before seeking care outside the province,” the statement said.

Molinski said he left his meeting with the health minister in May feeling like they were “sincere” about helping him, and the payment shows that. However, he’s still curious as to exactly how Manitoba Health arrived at the $23,908.99 figure, and said he has asked for a breakdown.

He believes the province needs to continue signing off on a limited number of out-of-province surgeries, when the system can’t meet the needs of patients like him due to wait times or other barriers.

“People should be compensated,” he said. “This took far too long — far too long.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has approved an agreement with Saudi Arabia that could potentially provide the kingdom with uranium enrichment capability for its civilian nuclear program, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly about the yet to be formally announced decision, said the agreement is expected to be announced as early as Wednesday.

The deal is expected to last 30 years and is also expected to involve U.S. firms in developing the program. The deal could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia following a joint U.S.-Saudi study.

But the deal, which is expected to be submitted to U.S. Congress for review, could face headwinds among lawmakers who fear that helping the Saudis fulfil their long-standing desire to enrich their own uranium would open new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition.

Saudi Arabia is a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based organization which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they don’t have clandestine atomic weapons programs.

But the agreement is not expected to include the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which would allow for more monitoring, inspections and verification, according to one of the people.

The expected announcement comes in the midst of the war against Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel, in part, to wipe out Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful.

The White House and Saudi officials in Riyadh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Both Trump and former president Joe Biden tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology.

But non-proliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright travelled to Saudi Arabia last year shortly before Trump visited the kingdom and discussed building out the kingdom’s commercial nuclear power industry with his Saudi counterpart. The U.S. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday.

Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defence minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed — something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps, including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fuelled the concerns of the West over Iran’s program.

The United Arab Emirates, a neighbour to Saudi Arabia, signed what is referred to as a “123 agreement” with the U.S. to build its Barakah nuclear power plant with South Korean assistance. But the U.A.E. did so without seeking enrichment, something non-proliferation experts have held up as the “gold standard” for nations wanting atomic power.

Alberta’s booming mosquito populations are triggering more than just itchiness and aggravation.

It turns out the pesky swarms are leading to some emergency room visits in Alberta, particularly among children.

Edmonton emergency room physician Dr. Andrew Dixon has treated a number of cases of so-called “skeeter syndrome” this summer.

“Lots of kids are coming into the emergency department with mosquito bites. I’ve probably seen five or six in the last two or three days,” he said in a recent interview with CBC News.

“We’ve seen a lot of kids come in with significant swelling. It usually worries people the most when it’s in and around the eye. You get a big swollen thing around the eye and the eye swells shut. Obviously it worries people but it is quite benign.”

‘Not uncommon’

When mosquitos bite we tend to get itchy as our bodies react to their saliva.

But some people, often those who haven’t been bitten very often, have a much stronger inflammatory reaction.

“Skeeter syndrome does happen more in the young,” said Dr. Mariam Hanna, a pediatric allergist and clinical immunologist at McMaster University.

“It tends to get better as they get older, as they get more mosquito bites [and] they become more tolerant to it. Their immune system recognizes it more and more.”

Large areas of skin can end up very red, swollen and hot, according to Hanna, and in some cases blisters can fill with fluid.

These reactions tend to peak around pre-school age and often fade by the time children are in school, she said.

“Most families have, in fact, not heard about this condition. And so when it happens to your child or someone you know, it can be quite alarming to see,” she said.

“It’s not uncommon particularly in some areas in Canada where we get a lot more mosquitoes and a lot more mosquito bites.”

Skeeter syndrome is localized and does not lead to anaphylaxis so it is not life-threatening, according to Hanna , who is also the pediatrics chair for the Canadian Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 

A low fever can be involved in some cases.

Because that is also a sign of potential infection, she recommends seeking medical care if that happens or if you are worried about your child.

Mosquitoes rampant

At the University of Calgary, John Soghigian has been keeping a close eye on mosquito populations.

“In Calgary we’ve had a particularly bad, early mosquito season and elsewhere in the province it looks like it’s largely been the same,  driven by a large amount of rainfall early on in the year,” said Soghigian, an associate professor in the faculty of veterinary medicine.

“We’re getting quite a bit more mosquitos. On the order of a hundred times more in some of our traps than we did this time last year,” he said.

With those kinds of mosquito counts, he’s not surprised skeeter syndrome is popping up.

“Edmonton and Calgary have really experienced rapid population growth of people moving here from elsewhere,” he noted.

“And if people have not been exposed to mosquitoes before, especially kids, then they have a higher chance of potentially developing skeeter syndrome or other allergic reactions to mosquito bites.”

Just how long the swarms of mosquitos will last ultimately depends on how much more rain comes, according to Soghigian.

Last year, for example, the mosquitoes picked up later in the season after a slow start he said.

Meanwhile, according to Hanna, there are a number of ways to treat skeeter syndrome, including icing the affected area, applying over-the-counter steroid cream and using oral antihistamines.

If the joints are impacted she said acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help with discomfort.

In a recent public service announcement , Alberta Health Services said allergic reactions from insect stings, bites and environmental exposures accounted for 1,511 visits at 13 hospitals during June, July and August of last year.

For his part, Dixon recommends people call Health Link if they have concerns.