The motivations that have contributed to the separatist movement and Alberta’s sense of grievance in recent years are not especially discrete; it’s more like a nebulous Venn diagram. Simple politics have pushed some people toward separatism. Indeed, the paucity of separatist talk during the time when Stephen Harper was prime minister suggests there’s a significant political component to the idea; when Liberals are in power, people feel more inclined to talk about leaving. Culture also plays a role. When Angus Reid pollsters talked to separatists in February 2026, 86.5 percent said they thought Canada forced Alberta to take in too many immigrants, and 96 percent believed that an independent Alberta would better protect personal freedoms.

But ... separatists tend to find the economic arguments particularly seductive. Angus Reid polling shows 96 percent of respondents who want an independent Alberta believe they would be free from economically damaging federal government policies. Separatist leaders promise the elimination of the personal income tax while creating a new provincial sales tax of 5 percent. They also claim Alberta would save $75 billion from no longer paying federal taxes.

Not all separatists promise immediate prosperity, but the argument remains persuasive. Cameron Davies is the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta. “I don’t paint an immediate rosy, utopian picture of what independence looks like,” he says. “Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it be immediate sunshine and rainbows? Probably not. But will it be worth it? Five, ten, fifteen years down the road for your kids and your grandkids? One hundred percent yes.”

Workers at the first Apple store to unionize in the US are pushing back against the company’s decision to shut it down by June, alleging that Apple’s decision is rooted in “a cynical attempt to bust the union”.

On Monday, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Apple, alleging unionized employees at the store in Towson, Maryland, are being denied transfer rights and other rights compared with workers at non-unionized stores. The union is also alleging retaliation for being unionized.

According to the union, Apple claims the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation, a claim the union says is “simply false, and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union”, the union said in a statement.

Apple denied the claims in the charge. “We strongly disagree with the claims made, and we will continue to abide by the agreement that was negotiated and agreed with the union. We look forward to presenting all of the facts to the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board],” a spokesperson said in an email.

The US president, Donald Trump, has claimed in a new Truth Social post that Iran has “just informed” Washington that they are in a “state of collapse”. Trump also said Iran wants the US to open the strait of Hormuz “as soon as possible” as they try to “figure out” their “leadership situation”, something he says he believes is possible.

We have not been able to verify any of these claims. Iran has not commented on them yet.

Trump has not said who the US has been speaking to in Iran as he has cast the regime in a state of chaos with the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, reportedly severely injured, and lawmakers divided on negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear programme.

A federal judge is tapping out of the Trump administration.

Donald Trump appointed Judge Alan Albright in 2018, but last week, the Texas-based judge announced his sudden resignation, revealing that his time on the bench will come to a close in August.

The reason seems to be related to personal fulfillment: Bloomberg Law reported Monday that Albright had given “signs” that he “wasn’t enjoying the job” in the week leading up to his shock retirement.

In his wake, Albright leaves behind one of the largest backlogs of litigation for any federal judge. As of last September, Albright’s lagging pen accounted for 70 percent of the 129 civil cases that were pending in the Western District of Texas for three years or longer. At the same time, Albright had 446 undecided motions, approximately twice the number of any other district judge in the Fifth Circuit. His colleagues in Austin—Robert Pitman and David Ezra—had none, according to Bloomberg.

A Nevada judge sentenced Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse on Monday to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.

A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to the sexual assault of three women.

Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse, 49, and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.

"There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have," said Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her.

"The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever," said Leone-LaCroix, who came forward publicly to share her story.

In March 2024, the Food and Drug Administration under President Joe Biden introduced a new rule that would have banned, after decades, the use of electric shocks on disabled children as a form of punishment. A ban on forcibly shocking kids—which the American Academy of Pediatrics says causes “long-lasting adverse physical and psychological impacts,” was set to come into force last year—but the Trump FDA kicked the can down the road, giving itself more time to decide whether its new leadership was on board.

Now, two years later, the FDA’s website claims that a decision will be made in the coming days on whether or not to follow through.

Massachusetts’ Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC), the focus of a 2007 Mother Jones investigation, remains the only known US institution to use electric shock devices to control—and punish—disabled youths in its care, many of whom are autistic or have mental illnesses, like schizophrenia.

China has blocked Meta’s $2bn (£1.5bn) acquisition of an AI startup as it cracks down on US investments in domestic tech companies.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced the acquisition of Manus, a developer of autonomous AI agents, in December.

However, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday it had cancelled the takeover.

In a statement, China’s top economic planning body said that it will “prohibit the foreign investment in the acquisition of the Manus project” and “requires the parties involved to withdraw the acquisition transaction”.

Bloomberg reported last week that Chinese regulators are planning to block tech firms, including leading AI startups, from accepting US investment without government approval.

Israeli forces in Gaza killed a water engineer and two drivers who transported water to displaced families over four days in mid-April, exacerbating severe shortages of clean water that are fuelling the spread of preventable disease.

Israeli limits on the shipment of soap, washing powder and other hygiene products into Gaza have also forced prices up, adding to the challenge of keeping clean and avoiding infection in overcrowded shelters and tent encampments.

Over more than two and a half years of war, Israeli attacks have destroyed most of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including networks that provided clean water and removed and treated sewage. They have also repeatedly killed Palestinian civilians trying to maintain or restore them.

‘‘Since the beginning of the war, we have lost about 19 workers from water facilities who were carrying out repair and distribution work,” said Omar Shatat, the deputy director of Gaza’s coastal municipalities water utility. “Targeting has become part of the operational reality.’’

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing the prospect of running against a rightwing-centrist super coalition in elections later this year after two of his most formidable political rivals combined forces in an attempt to oust him, inviting a third party leader to join them.

In a move that some analysts compared to the centre-right coalition that removed Viktor Orbán from power in Hungary, the former prime ministers – rightwing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid – issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid (There is a Future).

The move came as Netanyahu disclosed he had recently had a malignant tumour removed from his prostate, leading to questions about the timing of a disclosure that was vague on details and his wider health, with the latter now likely to be an election issue.

Bennett said the new party would be called Together and that he would be its leader. “After 30 years, it is time to part with Netanyahu and open a new chapter for Israel,” he said.

Iran is offering to end its chokehold on the strait of Hormuz without addressing its nuclear program, two regional officials with knowledge of the proposal said Monday.

It comes as the country’s foreign minister made a visit to Russia he said was an opportunity to consult with Moscow regarding the war against Israel and the United States.

Iran also wants the US to end its blockade of the country as part of its proposal, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

The new proposal, passed to the United States by Pakistan, likely won’t be supported by US president Donald Trump, who wants to end Iran’s atomic program as part of an overall deal to reopen the strait of Hormuz and make the ceasefire permanent.

A new poll from the Angus Reid Institute suggests Canadians are giving Prime Minister Mark Carney's government a passing grade in its first year of international relations, but it has failed to meet expectations on affordability issues.

The poll asked 2,013 Canadians a series of questions about the government's performance since it won the election on April 28, 2025.

Last spring's election campaign was dominated by the trade war with the U.S. and centred on who was best positioned to handle the relationship with the mercurial President Donald Trump and the economic turbulence of his tariffs.

A year later, just 31 per cent of those polled said they think the Canada-U.S. relationship will be the top concern for the government in the next year. The No. 1 priority for 52 per cent of respondents was reducing the cost of living.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has approved hikes in greenhouse gas emissions at a nickel mine in northern Labrador and the Cenovus-owned White Rose oilfield off the coast of St. John's.

Cenovus estimates that its new West White Rose platform will increase emissions at the oilfield by about 21 per cent at peak operation, or an amount equivalent to about 100,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to documents obtained through access to information legislation by The Canadian Press.

That's roughly the same as the emissions from more than 23,300 vehicles driven for one year, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.