Former Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen has encouraged the club to pursue a possible move for Sandro Tonali in the summer transfer window.

The Red Devils prioritised overhauling their misfiring attack last summer, with Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko arriving through the doors at Old Trafford for a combined fee of around £200million.

Club bosses had also been keen to bring in a deep-lying midfielder to suit Ruben Amorim’s much-maligned 3-4-3 system, reportedly identifying Adam Wharton, Elliot Anderson and Carlos Baleba as potential targets.

Brighton have since confirmed United’s interest in Baleba on the back of an exceptional season for the 22-year-old Cameroon international last term at the Amex Stadium.

But according to Brighton CEO Tony Bloom, United simply ‘went away’ when informed that Baleba would not be sold unless an astronomical fee was offered for the former Lille man.

Despite Amorim’s departure as head coach, United remain in the market for a midfielder in the mold of Baleba – and the likes of Joao Gomes and Ruben Neves were also linked over the course the January transfer window.

If it were up to Meulensteen, though, Newcastle duo Tonali and Joelinton should both be on United’s radar as options who ‘could fit the bill’ at the Theatre of Dreams.

Widespread reports claimed Arsenal made an approach for Tonali following an injury to Mikel Merino last month, but Newcastle made it clear the Italian was not for sale. It’s understood the Magpies have since slapped an asking price of £100m on their prized possession.

‘Sandro Tonali is a good player and he’s done really well for Newcastle,’ Meulensteen told BetGoat.

‘The rumours I heard were that he possibly wanted to go back to Italy, but he’s definitely a good player who understands how to play that role in midfield and he’s a good passer of the ball.

‘Manchester United definitely need to look into that position and what they need, I think they could look at Joelinton in that position. He obviously came there as a forward and Eddie Howe has dropped him and turned him into this massive motor in midfield.

‘He is a great player that has been learning from Bruno Guimaraes who is a leader, a strong character, a winner.

‘He’s possibly hard to get, but he could all fit the bill in my opinion.

‘Having said that, so does Adam Wharton because he’s so good at playing forward and that is exactly what the forwards would thrive on at Manchester United. Elliot Anderson again, great.’

But while Meulensteen recognises United’s apparent weakness at the base of the midfield, he is also wary about forcing Kobbie Mainoo out of the side again – as was the case under Michael Carrick’s predecessor Amorim.

‘There are so many, there’s plenty out there,’ Meulensteen, one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most trusted lieutenants, added.

‘But you wouldn’t want to bring too many in because you don’t want Kobbie Mainoo to end up back on the bench again.

‘He’s proven in those games that Michael Carrick has played him and he has all the right to keep playing and improving because you’ve got an outstanding player there.’

After the incessant rumours linking him with Arsenal towards the end of January, Tonali appeared to reaffirm his commitment to Newcastle with his animated goal celebration in the side’s FA Cup win over Aston Villa on Saturday.

Tonali, who scored twice in a 3-1 victory at Villa Park, later explained: ‘The first one, this celebration was, I think, seven months without scoring; if you don’t score for seven months, after the first goal, you celebrate for 10 or 11 goals – like Bruno [Guimaraes]!

‘But after the second goal, I came to Eddie [Howe] because in the past few weeks, people spoke about our relationship, but I work every day with the gaffer, the gaffer works every day with me, and our relationship is perfect. It’s not broken and I think this is perfect for the team.

‘We try to do the best for this team, every game, because we play a lot of games – every three days, we play, and we have to be concentrated every time in the training ground to do the best for our team.’

Tonali has made 96 appearances in all competitions across his three-year spell with Newcastle and got his hands on some silverware last season as Howe’s men lifted the Carabao Cup.

A ten-month ban – after Tonali was found to have breached Italian betting regulations – meant the midfielder played just eight league games in the debut season at St James’ Park.

Tonali’s current contract with the Toon runs through to June 2028, with the option of a further 12 months.

Former President Barack Obama criticized the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, calling it an “atrocity” given the billions of dollars elected officials have thrown at the problem over the years. 

Obama was speaking with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen when he touched on criticism local residents and business owners have voiced for years.

“I think it is morally — ethically speaking — it is an atrocity that in a country this wealthy, we have people just on the streets, and we should insist on policies that recognize their full humanity — people who are houseless — and be able to provide them with the help and resources that they need,” Obama said.

DAVID MARCUS: I’VE SEEN ENOUGH HUMAN SUFFERING IN HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS TO KNOW TRUMP’S NEW POLICY IS RIGHT

Former Barack Obama called the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County an “atrocity” during a podcast appearance. (Getty Images)

“We should recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown,” he added. “That’s a losing political strategy.”

Obama noted that building support for programs and resources to assist those living on the streets needs to come with some level of accountability for those being offered the help. 

“We’re not going to be able to generate support for it if we simply say, ‘You know what, it’s not their fault and so they should be able to do whatever they want,’ because that’s a losing political strategy,” he said. 

FORMER OBAMA OFFICIAL FREAKS OUT AT CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT OVER HER RECORD AMID HOUSING CRISIS DEBATE

A person walks amid large trash piles at a sprawling homeless encampment near East 14th Street in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 25, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“That doesn’t mean that we care less about those folks,” he added. “It means if we really care about them, then we got to try to figure out how do we gain majority support and be practical in terms of what we can get through at this moment in time and build on those victories,” he added. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. 

California has spent billions to combat homelessness. In his State of the State address last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom touted a 9% statewide drop in homelessness.

In January, he announced new investments to create more shelters and services.

A homeless encampment in Koreatown on Sept. 12, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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“No one in this country should be without a place to call home. In California, we’re proving there is a solution,” Newsom said in January. “The strategies we’ve put in place are working, and they’re turning this crisis around — but we’re not done. We won’t stop until everyone has a safe, stable place to call home.”

Ferguson is listed as an active director for three other businesses registered with Companies House: Ginger and Moss, set up as a lifestyle brand to sell tea, jewellery and housewares, a “motion picture production activities” business called Coat, and Librasol, classified under “artistic creation” on the official register for private companies.

Robert Duvall had an iconic career prior to his passing on Feb. 15, 2025, at age 95.

His wife, Luciana Pedraza, shared the news via Facebook the following day, writing, “Yesterday we said goodbye to my beloved husband, cherished friend and one of the greatest actors of our time.”

The actor “passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort.”

Keep scrolling to revisit Duvall’s legendary roles in major projects, from “The Godfather” to “Apocalypse Now.”

The investigation into last week’s shootings in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., that claimed nine lives has moved into a new phase after police cleared the two crime scenes.

While police say the only known suspect in the case, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed herself as police closed in Tuesday, questions remain.

By Friday, police had interviewed more than 80 students, educators, and first responders, with more underway. They are also gathering digital evidence, including videos shot at the school, CCTV footage and video from police body-worn cameras.

Here’s what we know about the investigation so far:

THE CRIME SCENES

Police tape came down Saturday at the home Van Rootselaar shared with her siblings and mother, Jennifer Jacobs, who had five children. The home was where police found the bodies of Jacobs and 11-year-old Emmett Jacobs, Van Rootselaar’s half brother.

Police also completed investigations at Tumbler Ridge Secondary school, about 1.6 kilometres away, where Van Rootselaar shot dead five children aged 12 and 13 and a teaching assistant.

RCMP say the final moments of the rampage were captured on video at the school. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Friday that the video showed a final burst of gunfire, which “was not directed at any persons,” before Van Rootselaar shot herself dead. The video has not been made public.

THE GUNS

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RCMP say an unregistered shotgun was used to kill Jennifer and Emmett Jacobs. Police had previously seized guns from the home under the Criminal Code and returned them after a request from their owner. But McDonald said the shotgun had never been seized. A second weapon found at the home is also under investigation, and other weapons have been seized.

A photo posted on social media last year by Jennifer Jacobs, who held a gun licence, showed at least six long guns, including what looks like a shotgun. Shotguns and other unrestricted weapons do not need to be registered if the owner has a valid Possession and Acquisition Licence.

Police say Van Rootselaar took two weapons to the school, a long gun and a modified rifle, which was previously reported to be a modified handgun. The main firearm used in the killings at the school had never been seized by police. McDonald declined to describe it Friday, because of its “unknown origin.” He said investigators are looking into whether other parties were involved “in terms of procuring that weapon.”

McDonald said Van Rootselaar had a gun licence that expired in 2024 and had no weapons registered to her.

MENTAL HEALTH

McDonald said last week that police had attended Jacobs’s home on “multiple occasions” over the past several years due to concerns about Van Rootselaar’s mental health. She was apprehended at least twice under B.C.’s Mental Health Act and taken to hospital “in some circumstances.”

He said he didn’t know if Van Rootselaar was receiving care at the time of the attacks.

THE MOTIVE AND THE VICTIMS

Police have said that they don’t believe Van Rootselaar was targeting specific victims. McDonald has said she was “hunting.”

Van Rootselaar was “prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with,” McDonald said Friday.

Van Rootselaar was not related to any of the victims at the school, although her mother was a friend of the mother of 12-year-old Maya Gebala, who is gravely wounded in hospital.

Police said last week they had no information about whether Van Rootselaar had been bullied at school and officers didn’t find a note. Van Rootselaar dropped out of school four years ago. She was transgender and had started transitioning about six years ago, McDonald said.

Autopsies on the victims were expected to have been finished have finished by Sunday, including for the shooter.

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Vehicle problems that turned into a nightmare – that’s how family members describe a crash that killed a Calgary father and left his 21-year-old daughter with life-changing injuries.

Strathcona County RCMP said two vehicles were stopped on the shoulder of the road on Feb. 8; both drivers were out of their vehicles, trying to change a tire, when the fatal collision occurred.

Victoria Fortuna had been driving on Anthony Henday Drive in Edmonton, says her aunt Laurel Cousens, when Fortuna got a flat tire and called her father Paul for help.

“They were getting the equipment out to change the flat tire and another driver plowed into the back of the second vehicle and pinned the two of them between the two SUVs,” Cousens said.

Police say the father, daughter and their vehicles were hit by a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

RCMP confirmed a 53-year-old man – identified by the family as Paul – died at the scene.

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One week after the crash, Victoria is still in the ICU.

“It is just overwhelming, the road ahead of her to rebuild her life,” Cousens said.

“It’s been beyond horrific for Victoria.”

Victoria’s family said both her legs had to be amputated and she’s undergone multiple surgeries.

They say quick work from other drivers on the Henday saved her life.

“Apparently it was a doctor – and I believe his wife – a nurse, were able to perform emergency techniques to stem the bleeding,” Cousens said

Victoria had moved to Edmonton from Calgary to attend MacEwan University’s fine arts program.

A GoFundMe to help Victoria’s family stay close to her and provide care reached its initial goal within a day.

Her family is thankful for the support. They also want to thank the people who helped at the scene.

“We just cannot express enough just how much that support means to us and it’s helping to prop us up through this horrendous, horrendous ordeal,” Cousens said.

They also want drivers to take more care on the roads and say this situation was avoidable.

“This could be your daughter, sister, friend, niece, granddaughter and like why?” Cousens said. “It is so not worth the risk.”

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Growing up, the world was a bit of an isolating place for Mica Prazak who had speech and hearing issues. But the movies were somewhere he could escape or learn or laugh or cry.

So when he found out that it was curtains down for Yellowknife’s only movie theatre, Capitol Theatre, Prazak said he was saddened but not surprised because entertainment has become “personalized.”

“We took music and we made it personal in our earbuds. We took movie theatres and then put them on our couch,” he said.  

“One thing I’m realizing is, I’m a realist. I know I view the movie theatre different from [how] my daughter views it. We’ll both have fun there, but she won’t fight for it like I would maybe.”

Earlier this month, Capitol Theatre’s owner said the business had been struggling, and the lease was not renewed. The theatre’s last day of operation is scheduled for March 31.

On Sunday, Prazak joined about two dozen other Yellowknifers who gathered for a meeting at the Weledeh Catholic School gym to talk about the importance of the space for the community, see if they could get more information about the theatre’s closure and discuss next steps.

One of the frustrations expressed was the lack of transparency regarding future plans.

Aidan Charpentier, organizer of the meeting, said the next step is to write to the theatre’s management asking about their plans for the space. “Right now we know nothing,” he said.

Further steps can be decided once it is clear what is happening with the space that is now home to Capitol Theatre — and whether it will remain a movie theatre, he said. Det’on Cho, the building’s owner, previously said that its “focus is on moving forward with a new leaseholder who will continue to use the space for a similar purpose.”

The consensus at Sunday’s meeting was that the city needs a dedicated screening space. Whether that space would be managed by a non-profit, a cooperative or another group still had to be discussed. Ideas ranged from forming partnerships with local schools to pop-up screenings, although some noted that it would perhaps not be possible to show new movies. 

Charpentier said he had contacted other theatre chains and is waiting to hear back. But Cineplex declined the offer to bring its franchise to Yellowknife, he added.

Movie theatre is a space for more than just cinema

At the meeting, people talked about how Capitol Theatre was more than just a place to watch movies.

They talked about how the theatre was a safe space for a date, where soccer teams could unwind at the end of a tournament, families could have a night out, or simply where the magic of cinema came alive on the big screen, sharing emotions with a roomful of people, just the way movies are meant to be.

Prazak, who is a school teacher, said it is not just a bonding moment when people come together during epic movie moments, but also the “powerful” connection that comes with watching a foreign film and spending time discussing it afterward.

A movie theatre, he said is one of the last places left where people focus on a story without distraction.

“When we’re watching [a movie] at home, we’re distracted When we’re listening to albums in our earbuds but walking through life we’re semi distracted,” he said. “A movie theatre is one of the few places left where people just put usually put their phones away and just allow themselves to be present for a while.”

Charpentier said Capitol Theatre’s closing means Yellowknife’s youth have one less place to go to in a city that offers few spaces.

“Especially indoors — in the winter time where you can go inside and just shut off our brains for a little bit and be entertained.”

The North in general and Yellowknife in particular is already geographically isolated from the rest of Canada and the world, said Jacob Charpentier, who worked at the theatre from 2011 to 2020.

The closing of the movie theatre means that people will lose out on watching the movies along with the rest of the world, he said. 

Jacob Charpentier, who is Aidan Charpentier’s twin brother, said he is planning a trip down south to watch some of the big releases scheduled for August such as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” and “The Odyssey” because now there is no movie theatre in Yellowknife.

The twin brothers said one of their favourite memories about the theatre was staying up late and going to a midnight screening.

“It’s us bonding and seeing [the movie] together and then talking about it after,” said Jacob Charpentier.

An Antigonish, N.S., girl is one of four winners of the 2025 Heritage Fair National Showcase in Ottawa for a project about the role women played on her family’s potato farm in North Lake, P.E.I.

“I was speechless, I couldn’t talk. I called, like, everyone in my family to tell them,” Cora Lukeman, 10, told CBC’s Information Morning in an interview last week.

Her family farm is R.A. Rose and Sons, which was first established in 1873 and passed down through six generations. She started the project— Women in Farming: Rooted in Tradition, Growing the Future —last year, when she was in Grade 4.

Lukeman said she wanted people to learn that women always had a role in farming but they didn’t always get credit. She said women in her family have always been part of the work in the fields, keeping the books and making decisions.

She interviewed her aunt, Keisha Rose Topic — who is the current president of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture — as well as her grandfather.

She said her grandfather told her women make good farmers because “they’re smart” and “they care about the land.”

Lukeman said one of the most interesting things she learned was that 50 per cent of new farmers in Atlantic Canada are women and a third of all farmers in Canada are women.

Lukeman said the fair was virtual, but that she had some “intense moments” when she was in P.E.I. on vacation waiting to find out the results.

“One night, my parents came home — they were on a date night — and they said they got an email that said I had won,” she said.

She said her aunt Keisha was proud of her because she also made it to the nationals at the heritage fair when she was younger.

Women working behind the scenes

Ellen Lukeman, Cora’s mom, told Information Morning it was “pretty amazing” to see her daughter had won and that she was able to find out in P.E.I.

“I knew her project was amazing and she had worked so hard on it and it was something she was so passionate about it. But the same could be said for all of these amazing young people that had gotten to that point,” Ellen Lukeman said.

Growing up in a farm family, Ellen Lukeman said she’s always known that “women really run the show behind the scenes.”

“I got to see my great-grandmother, or Cora’s great-great grandmother, Bessie and all her role in the farm and then my grandmother Laura. Things wouldn’t have happened without her,” Ellen Lukeman said.

“And also my sister, to take on such a huge role at a young age. She finished university and decided she wanted to come back to the farm. A tough decision to make living in a rural area to go back home and take on a job that we had seen growing up that had a lot of hardships involved with it too.

“The fact that Cora wanted to know more and was questioning what it means to be a woman in agriculture, I was really proud of her even just for asking that question.”

Cora Lukeman said she’s thought about farming as a job, but she hasn’t made her mind up yet.

“I kind of want to be a nurse practitioner like my mom,” she said.

WATCH | Cora Lukeman’s presentation:

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