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Trump blames Canada as US 'invaded by filthy air' from wildfires that could impact World Cup final
US President Donald Trump has blamed Canada for the impact of wildfire smoke that could impact the World Cup final.

White House officials are meeting on Friday with FIFA president Gianni Infantino ahead of Sunday's final to discuss the potential health dangers posed by wildfire smoke in the New York-New Jersey area.

Millions of Americans have faced hazardous conditions and orders to stay indoors, with firefighters battling 68 large blazes nationwide.

In Canada, some 835 wildfires were active on Thursday, mostly in the central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, with 112 of them burning out of control, according to the country's government.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump wrote: "We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!

"I will call the Prime Minister during the day to find out what they are going to do about it. The cost is incalculable!"

"Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result.

"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."

Smoke was seen drifting from northwestern Ontario across parts of the northeastern US during the wildfires, reducing air quality and darkening the skies.

Environment Canada gave the city an Air Quality Health Index reading of 10+, classified as "very high risk".

Andrew Giuliani, the head of the White House FIFA Task Force, told NBC News that he will assess if any contingency plans are necessary in the next 24 hours ahead of the World Cup final.

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'Incredibly disappointed': Henry Nowak's family release statement after killer's mother jailed
The family of Henry Nowak have released a statement after his killer's mother was jailed for three years for assisting an offender.

Kiran Kaur's son Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life for stabbing 18-year-old Mr Nowak to death in December.

She was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison after removing the knife from the scene and taking it back to the nearby family home.

In a statement following the sentencing, Mr Nowak's family said: "While we accept today's sentencing decision, nonetheless we remain incredibly disappointed.

"We will never give up in our campaign for justice for Henry. Our focus is on making sure the ongoing investigations leave no stone unturned as we fight for the full truth about what happened last December, and we continue to urge the government to deliver the changes our wonderful son deserves."

Mr Nowak's family also released new photos of him when he was a young boy.

Kaur, 53, of St Denys Road, Southampton, was found guilty at Southampton Crown Court of assisting an offender in May.

She was found guilty by the jurors who also convicted Digwa of murder and carrying a knife in public.

Her son was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 21 years, in June. He is seeking to appeal against the conviction and sentence.

A court heard he stabbed finance student Henry, who had been on the way home from a night out with friends, five times in December last year.

Rather than calling an ambulance, he filmed Henry as he lay on the floor, before claiming to have been the victim of a racial attack when police arrived.

His mother, Kiran, also arrived at the scene and removed the knife he had used.

Judge William Mousley KC, sentencing Kaur, said: "A responsible parent would have challenged their son over their actions and encourage them to do the right thing.

"Instead you took the knife home and put it with a larger collection of ceremonial and other weapons in your son's bedroom.

"That would have helped to conceal what it had been used for."

The judge said her actions before and after taking the dagger away "added to your son's pretence that he had done nothing wrong and that he was the victim".

He added that her role added to the "degradation of Henry being arrested when he was dying".

The court heard the knife was recovered after police studied CCTV and the murder weapon was found about a week after Mr Nowak was killed.

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Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC told the court during the trial her role was "crucial" in removing the murder weapon at a time the police were coming to the scene.

He said: "The absence of a weapon at the scene caused by her actions hampered the police attending who were confronted with a wall of lies. She chose not to disclose what she had done.

"Absence of that weapon led to Henry dying terrified, alone and disbelieved, her actions contributed to this."


West Indies cricketing great Sir Garry Sobers has died
West Indies cricketing legend, Sir Garfield "Garry" Sobers, has died at the age of 89.

The Barbadian cricketer, who was regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in the game, passed away on Friday, Cricket West Indies announced.

Sobers made his first-class debut for Barbados at the age of 16 in 1953, then quickly played his first match for the West Indies the following year.

He scored his first Test century - a then world-record 365 not out - against Pakistan in 1958. The individual score would stand unopposed until another Windies star, Brian Lara, raised the stakes again in the 1990s and 2000s, but it still stands sixth on the all-time list.

Sir Garry went on to play for the Windies for 20 years, making both his first and last Test appearances in 1954 and 1974 respectively against England.

For Nottinghamshire 10 years after his Test debut he hit six sixes against Glamorgan in the County Championship in Swansea, becoming the first player to do so in an over.

A statement on Windies Cricket's official X account read: "A great innings has come to an end. In our hearts, now and forever, Sir Garfield Sobers."

Nottinghamshire said in a statement on their official X account: "Cricket's greatest-ever all-rounder, and an iconic figure in Nottinghamshire history. We are extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Garfield Sobers."

He was adored in Barbados, where it was a daily occurrence for taxi drivers in Bridgetown to hail him, not the other way round.

Kishore Shallow, president of Cricket West Indies, described Sobers as "a son of Barbados whose extraordinary journey became part of the story of our region and whose brilliance carried the name of the West Indies with distinction across the world".

She added: "In the story of cricket, there are great players. There are champions. Then, there are those rare individuals who redefine the very meaning of greatness.

"Sir Garfield Sobers was the greatest cricketer the world has ever seen. His mastery of batting, bowling and fielding was unparalleled, but his true significance reached far beyond the boundary ropes."

Considered by many to be modern cricket's finest all-rounder, Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, who died just 11 days short of his 90th birthday, was an elegant batsman, a versatile bowler, a brilliant fielder and a respected captain.

Sobers, born in 1936 in St Michael, Bridgetown, was the fifth of six children and his father died in action during the Second World War in 1942, when his son was just five-years-old.

He was born with an extra finger on each hand at birth. They were soon removed but it did not impact his playing career.

Following his first-class debut, he played one more first-class match before he was picked to face England in the final Test in Jamaica in March 1954.

He took four first-innings wickets as a replacement for Alf Valentine in defeat.

A year later he proved his talent as a batsman after he dispatched Australian great Keith Miller for a string of early boundaries.

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In all, he made 93 Test appearances and scored 8,032 runs, scoring 26 hundreds in a 20-year Test career in which he had an average of 57.78 along with 235 wickets at 34.03.

Before being knighted in 1975, or named National Hero of Barbados in 1998, he had captained his country for seven years from 1965.

England Cricket posted on X: "One of the greatest to ever play the game. Forever in our hearts, Sir Garfield Sobers."


Brenda Fricker, best known for My Left Foot and Home Alone 2, dies aged 81
Brenda Fricker - the first Irish woman to win an Oscar - has died aged 81, her agent said.

She won best supporting actress in 1990 for playing the mother of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown in My Left Foot.

Daniel Day Lewis also won best actor for the leading role.

Ms Fricker followed that with a memorable role in Home Alone 2 as the Central Park "pigeon lady" who becomes friends with Macaulay Culkin's character.

Phil Belfield, her agent, said she had died after a period of ill health.

"We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her," he said in a statement.

"I was honoured to know, love and work with her and she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over."

The Dublin-born star also appeared with Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), and in A Time to Kill (1996), a legal drama fronted by Samuel L Jackson, Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey.

She was well known to British TV audiences through her long-running role as nurse Megan Roach on Casualty in the 1980s and 90s.

Later appearances included the film Veronica Guerin, which starred Cate Blanchett as the real-life Irish journalist murdered for investigating organised crime, and the adaption of Graham Norton's first novel Holding.

Ms Fricker also appeared on stage at venues including the National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre.

Paying tribute, Irish deputy prime minister Simon Harris said she was a "national treasure" and "among the greatest exports this country has ever produced".

"The [Oscar] win and her emotional acceptance speech, in which she dedicated the award to 'all the people of Ireland', was a defining moment for Irish cinema," the Tanaiste said.

"As the first Irish woman to win an acting Oscar, she opened doors and set a standard of excellence that continues to inspire generations of Irish artists."

My Left Foot director Jim Sheridan told Irish broadcaster RTE that Ms Fricker was an "amazing actress, amazing ⁠character, a forceful personality".

"She was vibrant and full of life and had her own opinions. She took no prisoners, let's put it that ‌way," Sheridan added.

Ms Fricker was married to director Barry Davies until 1988 and became pregnant multiple times but suffered repeated miscarriages - something she said left her with long periods of depression.

'Having a dreadful death'

In a bed-bound interview with The Guardian last year, she said she was "every day in pain" and "having a dreadful death".

Ms Fricker described binge-watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills because she couldn't sleep at night.

"It's better than getting drunk. I just love it," she told the paper.

Ms Fricker - who published her memoir last year - recounted a childhood involving grooming and abuse.

But in a lighter moment, looked back on her much-loved role in Home Alone 2.

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She said childhood star Macaulay Culkin was charming, but admitted ending every day "covered in pigeon shit".

On one occasion after filming, she bumped into Donald Trump in a hotel lift, telling The Guardian: "It was like I'd jumped into a pigsty but he was very polite about it."

The actress also once wrote in the Irish Independent that she was probably prouder of her name becoming Dublin rhyming slang for "knickers" than for her Oscar.

She said she had kept the famous statuette in a plastic bag under the stairs - before eventually promoting it to the shelf.


MP Patrick Spencer found not guilty of sexually assaulting two women at private members' club
An MP says his "nightmare is over" after he was found not guilty of sexually assaulting two women at a private members' club in central London.

Patrick Spencer, 38, was seen on camera coming up behind two women and putting his arms around them during a night out at the Groucho Club in August 2023. He was accused of "cupping" their breasts.

The Conservative politician was suspended by the Tories in May last year and sat in parliament as an independent after being charged with sexual assault. Following Friday's acquittal, his suspension has been lifted.

On Friday, Mr Spencer broke down in tears in court as he was cleared, after insisting he just wanted to give the women a hug.

Southwark Crown Court heard that when questioned by police, Mr Spencer called himself "gregarious" and "overfriendly" and was sorry for a "moment of complete stupidity".

The MP denied two counts of sexual assault which were said to have taken place while he was a guest at the venue in Soho.

At trial, Mr Spencer insisted he had not touched the breasts of one of the women, while contact with the other had been accidental and unintentional.

He said the gesture he made after the second woman pushed him away was due to him being "mortified" that she rejected his hug, rather than a "fist-pump" celebrating groping her.

In other evidence in court, Mr Spencer insisted he would never touch a woman's breasts without consent and disputed whether CCTV footage showed two sexual assaults.

The women told jurors they were left "shocked" after being grabbed by Mr Spencer, and one said she "froze" when she says her breasts were touched.

A jury deliberated for just over seven hours before finding Mr Spencer not guilty of two sexual assault counts.

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After the verdict, Mr Spencer said in a statement: "Our shared nightmare is now over.

"I have always maintained my innocence, and today's not guilty verdict draws a very long and challenging period in my life to a close.

"I would like to thank the jury, the court, my legal team and most importantly, my incredible wife, children, family, friends and colleagues - whose support has been unwavering throughout."

He added that he was "looking forward to getting home to see my kids and getting back to work representing my constituents".

He was elected as Tory MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich in 2024.

A Conservative Party spokesman said on Friday: "Patrick Spencer MP has been found not guilty.

"His suspension from the Conservative Party has been lifted and the Conservative Whip has been restored."


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