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Canadian rescuers rush to a remote part of Banff park following reports that a rock slide hit hikers

Canadian rescuers rush to a remote part of Banff park following reports that a rock slide hit hikers

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Rescue crews, police and paramedics rushed to the remote Canadian Rocky Mountain region of Banff National Park late Thursday after receiving reports that a group of hikers were hit by a rock slide, causing possible injuries and deaths.
'The initial report indicated there were multiple hikers and there may be serious injuries and/or fatalities,' Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Gina Slaney said in a news release.
Parks Canada said in a statement that it is responding to a report of 'a serious rockfall incident with involvement near Bow Glacier Falls in Banff National Park.'
The site is north of Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Calgary. It is also about 137 kms (85 miles) away from where leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump met at the Group of Seven Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta this week.
Temporary road closures were expected on the Icefields Parkway near Bow Lake in order to allow responders to work. Parks Canada has asked visitors to avoid the area.
STARS Air Ambulance spokeswoman Kate Langille said two of its units were deployed around 2 p.m. She said the organization would have more to say after crews returned to their bases in Edmonton and Calgary.
The Bow Glacier Falls hiking trail is a 9-kilometer (six mile) route open year-round, running along the edges of Bow Lake.
It's considered a moderate challenge for hikers and day-trippers include families.
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Rock Band Cardinal Black Recommends Welsh Travel Sites
Rock Band Cardinal Black Recommends Welsh Travel Sites

Forbes

time35 minutes ago

  • Forbes

Rock Band Cardinal Black Recommends Welsh Travel Sites

Welsh rock band Cardinal Black poses triumphantly after their first concert in New York City at a sold-out Gramercy Theatre. Cedric Perrier Most American travelers are unfamiliar with the riches of South Wales Valleys in Wales. They are very familiar, though, to the members of Cardinal Black, a Welsh rock band that performed a stellar debut concert in New York this month before a sold-out audience at the Gramercy Theatre and then embarked on a U.S. and Canadian tour that ends Aug. 30. 'It's a picturesque part of the world with a strong national identity and an abundance of character, history and heart,' says Chris Buck, Cardinal Black's super-talented guitarist who, like all the band members, hails from the region. 'There'll be a welcome (for Americans) in the hillsides.' There are several can't-miss sites in South Wales Valleys, Buck says. The region, located north of the English border and Welsh cities Cardiff and Swansea, extends about 60 miles from Carmarthenshire in the west to Monmouthshire in the east. 'Even though I've been there innumerable times,' Buck says, Big Pit, our national coal museum in Blaenavon, always has a profound impact to see the dangerous, claustrophobic conditions that my grandfather and great grandfather worked in for most of their lives. There's also the Roman fortress in Caerleon, one of the best-preserved examples of a Roman amphitheater in the United Kingdom.' The South Wales Valleys, according to the Welsh tourism website offer 'big green spaces that are perfect for walking and mountain biking.' The website suggests a visit to Aberdare, a town dubbed 'Queen of the Hills' that sits 'at the base of a wide and grand valley.' The town has quaint cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars and is 'the cradle of the British film industry,' where filmmaker William Haggard produced more than 30 films. Members of the Welsh rock band Cardinal Black take in the sights at Newgale Beach in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Lewys Mann About 23 miles south of Aberdare and just south of South Wales Valleys, Buck recommends a visit to St. Fagan's National Museum of History in Cardiff, Wales' capital and largest city. The museum is located four miles west of the city center. 'It has dozens of meticulously relocated historic Welsh buildings,' he says, 'including a cenotaph commemorating, amongst others, my great uncle who was shot down and killed over Berlin (in World War II) in 1945.' Cardiff Castle is 'a notable part of Cardiff's history and skyline, reportedly first commissioned by William the Conqueror and with remains from the Norman and Victorian eras,' Buck says. 'It's also a pretty epic place for a first gig, as we found out in late 2021! Maybe we should go back!' Caerphilly Castle, about a 20-minute drive north of Cardiff Castle, is the biggest Welsh castle and worth a visit, Buck says. It also was a good place for a high school prom, he adds. Buck and his wife had their wedding reception at The Skirrid Inn in the Brecon Beacons mountain range adjacent to South Wales Valleys. 'At nearly a thousand years old, it is Wales' oldest pub and one of my favorite places in the world,' he says. 'It has a slightly macabre history, having been frequented by the infamous Hanging Judge Jeffreys, who presided over the execution of seemingly every petty criminal in Wales in the 17th Century. The subsequent rope burns are still visible on the wooden beam in the pub's stairwell, and, perhaps not surprisingly, it's reported that the pub is prodigiously haunted. Granted, it's not your typical tourist destination, but it's fairly indicative of Wales' varied and sometimes dark history.' Brecon Beacons National Park includes four mountain ranges, according to and is 'full of grassy moorlands, heather-clad escarpments and old red sandstone peaks, softened by weather and time.' The park has more than 2,000 miles of footpaths and is a favorite of mountain bikers. Outside his home region, Buck has other recommendations for travelers to Wales. 'West Wales, particularly Pembrokeshire, has always been a firm favorite for family holidays, not just my own, but pretty much every family east of Swansea!' he exclaims. 'Joking aside, it's an extremely beautiful part of the world and home to St. David's, the U.K's smallest, quaintest city.' Members of Cardinal Black (left to right), vocalist Tom Hollister, guitarist Chris Buck and drummer Adam Roberts, stand behind the Welsh flag in West Wales. Lewys Mann Since starting his own family, Buck has a newfound appreciation of Tenby, a town known for its harbor and beaches about a tw0-hour drive west of Cardiff. 'Although fairly touristy, it's a quirky, incredibly pretty little seaside town,' he says. 'Further north (more than a three-hour drive from Tenby), Snowdonia National Park is stunningly beautiful and home to Wales' highest peak. The Wye Valley on the Wales-England border is also incredibly scenic and home to Tintern Abbey. For all its beauty, Tintern Abbey will always make me think of overhearing someone in an adjacent pub inform children that the Luftwaffe was responsible for its state of disrepair, despite Henry VIII having beaten them to it by some 400 years.' Laugharne, about a 90-minute drive northwest of Cardiff, was the home of poet Dylan Thomas, and visitors can see the Boathouse where he worked. 'I'm convinced that, at some point on the drive into Laugharne, you pass through a portal that takes you back into 1950,' Buck says. 'You're transported to a simpler, bygone era replete with charming cafes, bookshops, pubs and Dylan's Boathouse and writing shed. Browns Hotel may not be the dingy, smoke-filled boozer of Dylan's era, but Laugharne still has a character and charm uniquely its own.' Browns Hotel was Thomas's favorite local pub. When he lived in New York, he loved the White Horse Tavern, which apparently reminded him of the Laugharne pub. Cardinal Black's visit to New York was brief—the band headed to Toronto a day after its sold-out New York concert—but Buck noticed some similarities between the Big Apple and Cardiff. 'Obviously, they're world's apart in terms of scale,' he explains. 'New York's a global metropolis; Cardiff's a small capital city of a country with half the population of New York City. I only had a few days in New York City, but I got a feel for a similar sense of local pride in its identity. 'I spoke to no end of New Yorkers excited to tell me about their city and offer advice on where to visit,' Buck continues. 'You'll encounter a similar enthusiasm for their city from someone from Cardiff, especially around (soccer) match days or gigs in the stadium. Oasis recently opened their comeback tour at Cardiff's Principality Stadium, and the atmosphere in Cardiff around that show was electric. There was definitely a vibrancy and energy around Cardiff that I sensed, however fleetingly, in New York.' Cardinal Black concludes its North American tour Aug. 30 in Camino, California, and, heading back to the United Kingdom, Buck will have fond memories of New York City. 'I fell head over heels in love with it,' he says. 'Admittedly, a truly memorable sold-out show at the Gramercy Theatre probably predisposed me to like the place a little more, but there's something so impactful about rounding a corner and being confronted with buildings and places that you've only ever seen in films. It's truly iconic and awe-inspiring. I'm looking forward to going back when we have a little more time to actually soak in the city and not run around collecting backline ​(equipment needed for a live show). First dates of a tour are always a little hectic, and it's a shame those dates fell while in a city that I'm so desperate to see.'

These border towns in Maine and Canada seemed inseparable. Now Trump and tariffs are putting them to the test.
These border towns in Maine and Canada seemed inseparable. Now Trump and tariffs are putting them to the test.

Boston Globe

time3 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

These border towns in Maine and Canada seemed inseparable. Now Trump and tariffs are putting them to the test.

The international border between Calais and St. Stephen was once little more than a formality between towns entwined by generations of marriage, history, and economics. Now, their relationship is being tested by global politics beyond their influence. Some Canadians here are refusing to cross into America, even to visit longtime friends or to buy cheaper gas and groceries. 'I wouldn't be comfortable crossing,' said Bruce Craig, 73, who handed out Canadian flag pins on the parade route in downtown St. Stephen, within sight of Calais. Border crossings into Calais from St. Stephen began falling in February, after President Trump announced steep 'economic force' if necessary. Advertisement People started on Main Street in Calais, Maine, as they participated in the International Homecoming Festival Parade on Aug. 9. The parade ended across the border in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Canadian flag pins lay on a Liberal party table at the festival in St. Stephen. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff 'There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,' then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said early this year. He encouraged Since March, monthly passenger vehicle crossings from St. Stephen to Calais are down about 30 percent from 2024, according to US Department of Transportation figures. The dropoff is even worse elsewhere along the US-Canada border: Canadian authorities have reported that nationwide, the total number of Canadians returning by car from US trips in June was down 33 percent. Craig is one of the Canadians now refusing to cross into the US, a decision he made out of principle – and some concern about being hassled or detained for his political comments on social media. He's going to great lengths to avoid even stepping foot in America. How great? On a planned road trip this month to see a grandson in southern Quebec, he will not follow his usual route cutting through Maine – a roughly five-hour drive that would mean twice crossing the international border. Instead, he will head north, staying in Canada and motoring the long way around the rounded top of Maine and then back down – a journey that will balloon a half-day trip into two days and require staying in a motel. It's going to be a big inconvenience, for sure, but his national pride is bigger. 'It was the fifty-first state thing, the slap to our sovereignty,' Craig said. 'That punched everyone in the head.' Advertisement It may be hard to find two communities anywhere that have been as closely connected as Calais and St. Stephen, never mind two communities in different countries. People here have long shopped, worshiped, dated, and married across the border. Fans on both sides even cheer for the same sports teams, including the Red Sox and Bruins. Residents of the towns 'blithely tangle up their transborder economic and social lives without thinking twice about it,' a Saturday Evening Post reporter observed in 1946. The precursor to the towns' Bob Treworgy, of Calais, was elected to serve mayor of both Calais and St. Stephen for a week in 1961. The event, called Frontier Week, was the predecessor to the current International Festival. Courtesy of St. Croix Historical Society The 1961 event also featured Red Sox great Ted Williams, who played in the international softball game and competed in the fishing derby. Courtesy of St. Croix Historical Society Today, if you spend any time speaking to people in either town about their shared history, you will hear the gunpowder story. The flourishes change from person-to-person, but the basic thrust is this: During the War of 1812, when Calais and St. Stephen were technically enemies, St. Stephen gave their gunpowder reserves to their friends across the river in Calais, so the Americans could properly celebrate the Fourth of July. The point of the story is not the facts, which may be apocryphal, but the truth beneath them. For hundreds of years, the towns have been inextricably connected. Take Johnny Chambers, 50, who says his family has been here for five generations. He was born in Calais, lives in St. Stephen, and serves as the pastor of Common Ground Church of God, which sits in Calais. His wife is from St. Stephen. His parents live in Calais and own an inn in St. Stephen. He has a brother in Calais and a sister in St. Stephen, who in turn owns a business in Calais. Advertisement 'We're all a bunch of half-breeds up here,' he said. Chambers crosses the border multiple times a day, he said, for work, for banking, for fun. To keep himself on track, Chambers keeps his wristwatch set to Eastern time, for when he's on the American side, and his phone to Atlantic time, for when he's in Canada. It's confusing and yet he loves it. 'What they say – 'two communities, two towns, and one heart'– is very, very true,' he said. Though there have been articles in the Canadian press about Canadians detained at the US border, Chambers says the border has also been a magnet for social media misinformation. He has taken it upon himself to be a voice of reassurance for concerned friends – no, you're not going to be charged a fee to enter the US, he tells them, and no, the Customs and Border Protection officers are not going to tear your car apart conducting a search. Chambers is confident that the vast majority of Canadians in the area still have no problem crossing into the US, though those who won't make a lot of noise. It perhaps hasn't helped international relations that Calais, like almost all border towns in New England, voted for Trump in 2024. 'There are some people who hate the Orange Man – that's what they call him – and some who don't,' he said. 'I can tell you, it is difficult as a patriotic American to listen to Canadians bang on about American politics. Because they live under the umbrella of freedom and security provided by America.' Advertisement Runners passed a pair of US Customs and Border Protection officers during a 5-mile race that crosses the border twice. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Calais and St. Stephen aren't rich places, and businesses in each town depend on border-crossing customers. Calais, population of about 3,100, has a median household income of about $48,650, some $25,000 below the Maine statewide average. Many locals work in the service industry, in health care, or at the paper mill in nearby Baileyville. The cost of living is low: if you can make $50,000, one man said, you can live a decent life. But without through-traffic to and from Canada, Calais would be a poor town at the end of a dead-end road, as one American businessperson put it. When the international parade seemed in danger of being canceled this year, it was small business owners who rallied to help save it. The parade began under a beating sun in the parking lot of a Calais motor inn, about a mile from the border. It included classic cars, floats advertising local companies, an ancient fire truck with a motor that wheezed and coughed, and members of a Canadian ATV club on their tricked out machines, some decorated in the theme of the Minecraft video game. A US border officer in her black uniform ran alongside the parade handing out candy and tiny American flags to kids. Along Main Street, the procession passed Jan McPhee, 72, of Calais, holding a sign at the curb that read: 'We love you! Canada Thank U 4 coming.' 'I have good friends over there and they are not coming over,' McPhee said of her St. Stephen pals, her voice thickening with emotion. She is 'embarrassed and heartbroken' by the Trump administration's provocations toward Canada, but feels powerless to do anything about it. Advertisement 'It's particularly hard for people on the border because we have more connections than people from, like, the Midwest,' she said. 'We see it, we feel it, we're sad about it.' At one point, a woman passing in a parade float spotted McPhee's sign and jumped down, running over to hug McPhee like a long lost friend, though they'd never met. 'Thank you for bringing the sign,' the woman said. In downtown Calais, the parade passed a table of laser art on birch and maple boards, by Bob Fitzsimmons, 61, a retired Baileyville chief of police. He, too, grew up in a blended family: A dad from Maine and a mom from New Brunswick. Baby Miss International Rylee Holmes took part in the festival in St. Stephen. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Dallas Murray (right) took a sip of water as he competed in Jo's Pizza Eating Contest during the festival (he'd place second). Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Fitzsimmons said he and his buddies, from both Calais and St. Stephen, talk border politics all the time. 'Some messages could be better said with sugar than a kick in the butt,' he said. 'We've been not only neighbors but families for generations. To have the US kick our friends and pull the rug out, it's disheartening.' Several Calais residents said they have noticed fewer Canadian license plates outside their bigger retailers, such as Walmart, where American and Canadian flags still hang from the ceiling inside. Local news organizations published stories this spring about the economic hit to Calais businesses. As the parade turned toward the river, it passed Jo's Diner & Pizzeria, one of the first businesses you encounter when crossing from Canada into the US. The restaurant's owner, Tim Crowe, emceed the International Festival's pizza-eating contest (medical personnel stood by in case it turned into a Heimlich-maneuver contest). Crowe has run the restaurant for about 16 years. He's cautious about saying anything disparaging that could offend a customer – people of all political persuasions and national allegiances buy pizza. Or at least they used to. He acknowledged business is down about 20 percent, due to Canadians staying on their side of the border. 'It gets worse depending on the news cycle,' he said. Pizza sales fall when harsh words are exchanged between Washington and Ottawa. When the rhetoric calms down, the numbers begin to tick back up, as Crowe waits nervously for the next clash. He just has to watch the morning news to anticipate the effect on his business. 'I think the only people who are experiencing this are the border towns.' On the St. Stephen side of the border, the parade floats traveled parallel to the river for more than half a kilometer, past a sports bar with a wall mural of Boston Bruins general manager and former player Don Sweeney, the pride of St. Stephen. (Sweeney recalls attending the International Festival with family throughout his childhood, he said through a Bruins spokesman.) Tracey Matheson, of St. Stephen, said she is among those who no longer cross the border to shop. 'It sucks because we like our deals over there,' she said. She empathizes with Calais business owners, but how else can ordinary Canadians take a stand against American government policy? 'What you're doing is wrong and there has to be consequences. 'We're Canadians,' she said, 'we love everybody, but don't [expletive] with us.' After the curse word slipped out, she covered her mouth with a hand. 'Oooo! I mean don't mess with us.' Throughout Canada, companies are trying to cash in on the wave of nationalistic feelings, pushing their Made-in-Canada bona fides, said JP Lewis, a professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick Saint John. It's already proving to be effective. The CEO of the big-box retailer The Canadian government, Lewis said, is also encouraging Canadians to keep their money at home by reducing trade barriers between provinces. On Aug. 1, the toll on the Confederation Bridge connecting New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island was slashed from $50.25 to $20, making it cheaper for Canadians to enjoy their own Atlantic coast, rather than vacationing in the US. The American side is feeling the squeeze. Last year, some 800,000 Canadian visitors spent almost $500 million in Maine, according to the state's Office of Tourism. Governor Janet Mills People on the Canadian banks of the St. Croix River watched fireworks shot off from the Maine side. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Vicki Hogarth, a Canadian journalist covering the festival with CHCO-TV, a community television station in nearby St. Andrews, New Brunswick, said that the conflicts with the Trump administration are a coming-of-age moment for a country that has long been cast as understudy to the US star on the world stage. 'Before this we didn't really have the best idea of a Canadian identity,' she said. 'When you have these moments when you're being threatened, it was impressive that we could rise to the occasion. It is a really interesting moment to be a Canadian.' Around the corner from the Don Sweeney mural, 33-year-old Michael Jacobs helped staff the welcome tent for Canada's Liberal Party, which rode anti-Trump sentiments to an election victory in the spring. 'President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us,' Prime Minister Mark Carney said in his victory speech. 'That will never ... ever happen.' To Jacobs, who grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, about 90 minutes north of St. Stephen, it's all quite sad. 'Atlantic Canadians and New Englanders are so similar,' he said. He recalled his many vacations to the US – to Camden, Maine, Bar Harbor, and Boston. 'Every year our back-to-school shopping trip was to Freeport' – the Maine outlet store haven. 'I can't wait to go back to New England. We love America. We love visiting.' Just not right now. Out of principle and national pride, Jacobs said he won't cross the border until a new US president is in office. 'The alternative,' he said, 'is me giving tacit permission' for Trump's policies. 'Any Canadian who grew up along the border has fond memories of going to the US, and we look forward to making more memories – when the time is right.' Mark Arsenault can be reached at

Hundreds of historic tall ships are heading for Amsterdam for a maritime festival
Hundreds of historic tall ships are heading for Amsterdam for a maritime festival

San Francisco Chronicle​

time4 hours ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

Hundreds of historic tall ships are heading for Amsterdam for a maritime festival

AMSTERDAM (AP) — A flotilla of hundreds of historic ships was heading into Amsterdam on Wednesday, kicking off a five-day festival celebrating the Dutch capital's maritime history. Vessels from all over the world, their masts and rigging decorated with flags, left the North Sea coastal town of Ijmuiden to begin their hours-long journey up the North Sea Canal and into Amsterdam's Ij waterway for SAIL 2025, the first edition in a decade. A puff of orange smoke erupted into the sky and ships' horns sounded as the replica three-masted clipper Stad Amsterdam passed through a lock to mark the official start of the event. Each ship is greeted with two cannon shots and its country's national anthem as it enters the harbor. Hundreds of smaller vessels packed the waterways to watch the ships pass. The event, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors, is held every five years. The 2020 edition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wednesday's parade culminates in an evening fireworks display. The ships will remain in Amsterdam, many open for visitors, through the weekend. The first event was first held in 1975 to celebrate Amsterdam's 700th anniversary and this year's edition coincides with the city's 750th birthday.

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