IN JUNE 2021, an Atikamekw artist named Catherine Boivin posted a video on TikTok. It begins with a clip of a woman who goes by Isabelle Kun-Nipiu Falardeau describing “une femme Métis de l’Est,” or an Eastern Metis woman. In French, Falardeau explains that such women are “wild . . . you let them loose in a forest and they won’t have a problem,” that they have “hunter husbands” and don’t wear makeup. Falardeau was speaking generally, but she also calls herself la Métisse des Bois—the Metis woman of the woods. The video then cuts to Boivin, a mascara wand hovering near her eyelashes. “Do we tell her or not?” she says to the viewer in French.

Boivin’s question captures the growing frustration among many Indigenous people who have seen their identities not only co-opted for profit but reduced to cheesy stereotypes. Expert estimations place the number of people who have fabricated Indigenous identities at tens of thousands to possibly over a hundred thousand. Some of these so-called pretendians have made the headlines—singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, author Joseph Boyden, filmmaker Michelle Latimer—but the vast majority are not notable enough to warrant a media exposé detailing their deceptions.

In early May, Boivin found herself in a Quebec courtroom with Falardeau, who is suing her for defamation over a number of social media posts—what Falardeau has called a “smear campaign”—that, in turn, allegedly spurred an onslaught of cyberbullying. (Falardeau responded to fact-checking questions but declined to provide evidence or details regarding her ancestry.)

In a post on Truth Social, president Trump claims a 12-hr ceasefire between Israel and Iran has been reached. The ceasefire, he says, will begin in 6 hours.

He writes:

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED!

Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL. On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR.” This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering a potential plan to vaccinate poultry against bird flu for the first time that includes evaluating how it would affect exports, the agency told Reuters this week.

The actions advance the government's assessment of a vaccine after the USDA received proposals on usage from associations representing egg and turkey producers whose farms have been devastated by the virus. Nearly 175 million chickens, turkeys and other birds have been culled in attempts to contain outbreaks since 2022 in the nation's worst animal-health emergency.

The USDA pledged to spend up to $100 million on research into vaccines and other therapies to combat bird flu after prices spiked.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has invoked the Iranian regime’s heinous women’s rights record to justify his heinous war on Iran. This is the man whose genocide of Palestinians in Gaza killed more women and children in its first year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.

“They’ve impoverished you, they’ve given you misery, they’ve given you death, they’ve given you terror, they shoot down your women, leaving this brave, unbelievable woman, Mahsa Amini, to bleed on the sidewalk for not covering her hair,” he told Iranians in an interview with Iran International.

It is incredible to hear Netanyahu call on the Iranian people to rise up against the very things he has subjected Palestinians to. But it is not surprising. I am all too familiar with the ways imperialists, occupiers and invaders weaponise Muslim women’s bodies and rights to justify their wars.

Benjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London during the blitz, and pointed to his own family’s sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son’s wedding.

The Israeli prime minister’s remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Beersheba, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war that Netanyahu unleashed on Friday.

The stunning comments also added grist to the arguments of his critics that the PM is increasingly cut off emotionally from the daily realities of Israel and the region, after more than 17 years in office.

Seeking to underline his family’s shared hardship with ordinary Israelis, Netanyahu adopted a Churchillian tone when pointing out that this was not the first time his son Avner’s wedding had needed to be postponed, and that Avner’s fiancee was also disappointed, not to mention the thwarted mother of the groom, Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

“It really reminds me of the British people during the blitz. We are going through a blitz,” Netanyahu said, referring to the wartime Nazi bombing of Britain in which 43,000 civilians died.

A listeria food poisoning outbreak that has killed three people and led to one pregnancy loss is linked to newly recalled heat-and-eat chicken fettucine alfredo products sold at Kroger and Walmart stores, federal health officials said late Tuesday.

The outbreak, which includes at least 17 people in 13 states, began last July, officials said. At least 16 people have been hospitalized.

FreshRealm, a large food producer with sites in California, Georgia and Indiana, is recalling products made before June 17. The recall includes these products, which were sold in the refrigerated sections of retail stores:

The agenda for the new committee’s first meeting, posted Wednesday, shows it will be shorter than expected. Discussion of COVID-19 shots will open the session, but the agenda lists no vote on that. Instead, the committee will vote on fall flu vaccinations, on RSV vaccinations for pregnant women and children and on the use of a preservative named thimerosal that’s in a subset of flu shots.

It’s not clear who wrote the agenda. No committee chairperson has been named and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment.

Missing from the agenda are some heavily researched vaccine policy proposals the advisers were supposed to consider this month, including shots against HPV and meningococcal bacteria, said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Instead, the committee is talking about subjects “which are settled science,” she said.

Brazil auctioned off several land and offshore potential oil sites near the Amazon River on Tuesday as it aims to expand production in untapped regions despite protests from environmental and Indigenous groups.

The event came months before Brazil is to host the U.N.’s first climate talks held in the Amazon. The protesters outside Tuesday’s venue warned of potential risks that oil drilling poses to sensitive ecosystems and Indigenous communities in the Amazon.

Nineteen offshore blocks were awarded to Chevron, ExxonMobil, Petrobras and CNPC. The oil companies see the area as highly promising because it shares geological characteristics with Guyana, where some of the largest offshore oil discoveries of the 21st century have been made.

The acting chair of the federal agency that enforces workers rights acknowledged Wednesday that transgender workers are protected under civil rights laws but defended her decision to drop lawsuits on their behalf, saying her agency is not independent and must comply with President Donald Trump’s orders.

Andrea Lucas, who was first appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2020 and elevated to chair in January, spoke at her confirmation hearing at the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Her nomination to serve another five-year term as an EEOC commissioner requires Senate confirmation, though whether she stays on as chair will be up to Trump.

Republican senators praised her leadership, especially her commitment to rolling back Biden-era regulations and guidance on gender-identity rights, which Lucas has argued overstepped the EEOC’s authority.

A 20-year-old man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of engaging in an online campaign of cybergrooming and virtual sexual abuse of children, including pressuring a 13-year-old American boy to kill himself and livestream the act, authorities said Wednesday.

The German-Iranian man was arrested Tuesday. The man, whose name was not made public in line with German privacy rules, was taken into custody at his parents’ apartment in the northern city of Hamburg. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to bring formal charges. He denied wrongdoing in a closed-doors appearance before a judge, authorities said.

“The acts exceed human imagination,” Hamburg Attorney General Jörg Fröhlich said at a news conference Wednesday, German news agency dpa reported.

A brand-new water bomber sat unused and idle at the La Ronge airport as wildfires raged nearby, destroying homes and businesses, according to Saskatchewan's Opposition NDP.

NDP public safety critic Nicole Sarauer said the province took delivery of the multi-million dollar Conair Dash 8-Q400AT airtanker on May 30, according to flight records.

"Since landing, the aircraft hasn't logged a single flight. It's been sitting there unused," Sarauer said.

Sarauer said the plane sat idle and unused, with Premier Scott Moe seemingly unaware it had even arrived.

She pointed to June 6, a week after the plane arrived, when Moe said during a daily Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) briefing that the plane was on its way and would be put to use as soon as it arrived and was ready.

"It appears that Premier Scott Moe and the Sask Party government either weren't straight about the bomber or were completely asleep at the wheel during a crisis," Sarauer said.

A Canadian Indigenous leader who greeted world heads of state arriving for the Group of Seven summit says he was “filled with rage” and considered leaving before Donald Trump arrived — saying the U.S. president has “caused much pain and suffering in the world.”

Instead, Steven Crowchild prayed, consulted with his peoples’ leaders and ultimately opted to stay on the tarmac for a long conversation with Trump that he hopes will call more attention to promoting peace, protecting clean water and other issues key to Canada’s First Nation peoples.

“It was really intense, to say the least,” Crowchild told The Associated Press on Monday, recalling his lengthy encounter with Trump on Sunday night in Calgary for the G7 in nearby Kananaskis. “When I woke up on Father’s Day, I didn’t anticipate I would be seeing world leaders, and one certain individual that has caused much pain and suffering in the world.”