A day after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the San Diego coast following a historic 10-day mission around the moon, the Artemis II crew took the stage at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas, emotionally reflecting on their time in space and safe return. 

“It’s a special thing to be human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,” commander Reid Wiseman said, adding that he and his three crew mates are now “bonded forever” before they all hugged. 

“Welcome home Artemis II,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said before introducing the crew members: 

Weisman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.

“There is there is no doubt there is a price to pay when it comes to exploring the cosmos, but there is also a return, a return in the jobs that creates the technologies that improve life here on earth, and the inspiration that sparks and all those who choose to follow, and to people all around the world who look up and dream about what is possible. The long wait is over,” Isaacman said. “After a brief 53-year intermission, the show goes on and NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon and bringing them home safely.”

FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT SAYS ARTEMIS II MISSION WAS ‘INCREDIBLE’

NASA’s Artemis II mission astronauts mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, left, mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover and commander Reid Wiseman are welcomed home at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Saturday, in Houston, Texas. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP via Getty Images)

Wiseman who spoke first, joked that he had “absolutely no idea what to say.”

“Twenty-four hours ago, the Earth was that big out the window, and we were doing mock 39, and here we are back at Ellington at home,” he said.

Glover said he still hadn’t processed everything, thanking God “because, even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw doing what we did, and being with who I was with, it’s too big to just be in one body.” 

Koch reflected that the “start and the end” of the mission were “human moments on Earth.”

“Ten days ago, this journey started with our mission manager, Sean Duvall, knocking on my door in crew quarters and whispering, ‘Christina, We’re go for launch. Get up!’ And it ended last night when my nurse on the ship put me to bed and said, ‘Ma’am, can I get a hug?’”

FIRST-EVER PHOTO OF EARTH FROM MOON’S FAR SIDE UNVEILED AS ARTEMIS II BEGINS JOURNEY HOME, TRUMP WEIGHS IN

Artemis II crew hugs during the welcome home ceremony on Saturday. (KRIV)

She also said she had a new understanding of the meaning of the word “crew” since their mission.

“A crew is people or, you know, a group that is in it all the time, no matter what that is, stroking together every minute with the same purpose that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other,” she said. “That gives grace, that holds accountable. A crew has the same cares and the same needs, and a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked. So, when we saw Tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had, and honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth. It was all the blackness around it.”

She also now thinks of Earth as a “lifeboat” in a universe of blackness. 

“Planet Earth, you are a crew,” she added. 

The Artemis II crew hugs at the welcome home ceremony on Saturday in Houston. (KRIV)

Hansen expressed his gratitude to all the people who supported them and their mission. 

“And I don’t think people will really ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were. It is almost unbelievable,” he said. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He added of their crew: “What you saw was a group of people who loved contributing, having meaningful contribution and extracting joy out of that,” he added with his arms around his crew members. 

“I would suggest to you that when you look up here, you’re not looking at us,” he continued. “We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you.”

Snack to the future?

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman foretold his historic voyage to the moon in 2017 after opening a fortune cookie that predicted he would travel to a “strange place.” An X post showing the spaceman holding the prescient pastry’s prophecy is taking off online.

“A visit to a strange place will bring you renewed perspective,” reads the oracular cookie’s forecast, along with the lucky numbers 47, 31, 22, 9, 19, and 35.

In the caption, Wiseman wrote that he chose to “believe the fortune” and that the so-called voyage would perhaps entail a trip to the “moon or a #JourneyToMars.

While it may have seemed like a humorous distraction at the time, the confection’s prophecy would seemingly come true less than a decade later.

On Monday, Reid and his crew — Victor Glover, Christina Koch ⁠and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — traveled the farthest anyone has gone into space after flying a staggering 252,756 miles from Earth during their historic tour of the moon.

In doing so, they eclipsed the record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in 1970. During this latest fly-by, the intrepid Artemis squad gazed upon swaths of the moon’s far side never before seen by human eyes

Fans of the mission were awestruck over how well the fortune had foretold Reid’s future.

“Hey, you’re gonna be shocked when I say this but … this is you on the way to the moon,” shared one viewer, along with a pic of Reid and his fellow astronauts phoning home from the cosmos.

“I’m from the future, boy do I have news for you,” said another.

“That’s one fortune cookie that delivered on a cosmic scale,” added a third.

Others observed that the numbers 47 and 22 are considered lucky across many cultures.

NASA also weighed in on Reid’s “good fortune,” sharing his X post with checkmarks next to “Strange place” and “New perspective” to suggest that the prediction had come to life.

Others wished him well on his return flight.

“What a beautiful fortune to have come true,” gushed one fan. “Congrats Reid, and have safe travels back home.”

The Artemis II has since departed the moon’s gravitational pull and is currently en route back to Earth with the projected “splashdown” slated for 8:07 p.m on Friday, if everything goes according to plan.

Perhaps the most moving moment of the voyage came when, after breaking Apollo 13’s record, members of the crew asked to name one of the newly observed lunar craters after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.

She died of cancer in 2020, leaving behind Wiseman and two daughters.

“A number of years ago, we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” Jeremy Hansen told NASA’s mission control in Houston during a Monday call as Wiseman cried along with the mission’s other two crew members. “There’s a feature in a really neat place on the moon, and it is on the near side-far side boundary.”

“It’s a bright spot on the moon, and we would like to call that Carroll,” he added, with Houston appearing to agree to the request.

The crew also requested that another crater be named after their capsule, Integrity.

NASA unveiled the first-ever photo of Earth from the far side of the moon after a flyby Tuesday, taken by the Artemis II astronauts that President Donald Trump hailed in a phone call as “modern-day pioneers.”

The historic image, taken for the very first time by human beings from this exact perspective, was compared by NASA to the iconic “Earthrise” photo taken by astronaut Bill Anders from the Apollo 8 mission nearly 60 years ago.

NASA dubbed the photo “Earthset,” as a callback to the 1968 photo.

“Humanity, from the other side,” The White House wrote in a post sharing the photo on X. “First photo from the far side of the Moon. Captured from Orion as Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon.”

NASA CHIEF JARED ISAACMAN SAYS ARTEMIS II WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE ‘IF IT WASN’T FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’

“Earthset” is captured through the Orion spacecraft window Monday during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the moon. (NASA)

Trump took a call with the astronauts on the Artemis II mission late Monday, saying: “Today you’ve made history and made all of America really proud. Incredibly proud.”

“Humans have really never seen anything quite like what you’re doing in a manned spacecraft. It’s really special,” Trump added. “I want to personally salute and congratulate Commander Reid Weissman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.“

NASA reported that the Earthset photo was captured through the window of the Orion spacecraft around 7 p.m. ET on Monday during a flyby of the moon, without giving any of the four Artemis II crew members specific photographer’s credit.

ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUT TELLS TRUMP WHAT COMMUNICATION BLACKOUT WAS LIKE: ‘I SAID A LITTLE PRAYER’

NASA described the view from the photo as a “muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface.”

“The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime,” NASA wrote. “On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region.”

The Orion holds 32 cameras, according to NASA. Fifteen cameras are fixed to the spacecraft, and 17 are handheld by crew members.

ASTRONAUT VICTOR GLOVER PRAISED FOR SAYING MOON MISSION IS ‘HUMAN HISTORY,’ NOT ‘BLACK HISTORY’

The lunar surface fills the frame in sharp detail, as seen during the Artemis II lunar flyby on Monday. (NASA)

Artemis II Mission Specialist Christina Koch remarked upon the beauty of the Earth from the crew’s unique vantage point, calling it “special.”

“The thing that changed for me, looking back at Earth, was that I found myself noticing not only the beauty of the Earth, but how much blackness there was around it and how it just made it even more special,” Koch recalled.

The Artemis II astronauts begin their journey back to Earth Tuesday, with the crew expected to travel a total of 695,081 miles total from launch to splashdown. Their mission is projected to be over 4,000 miles further from the Earth than Apollo 13.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Artemis II capsule is projected to make its West Coast splashdown early Friday evening off the coast near San Diego.

“Your mission paves the way for America’s return to the lunar surface very soon,” Trump told the Artemis II crew.

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace and Landon Mion contributed to this reporting.

Green Shirt Day is back, and Canadians are being encouraged once more to register as organ donors.

The day is a national campaign rooted in the legacy of an Alberta-born junior hockey player killed eight years ago in the Humboldt Broncos crash in Saskatchewan.

2:04
Organ and tissue donation campaign kicks off leading up to Green Shirt Day

Twenty-one-year-old defenceman Logan Boulet died from his injuries on April 7, 2018, and his parents said it had been his wish to donate.

Green Shirt Day organizers have said that decision helped save six lives.

In the weeks that followed, about 150,000 people registered to become organ donors, launching what became known as the “Logan Boulet Effect” and Green Shirt Day.

The crash killed 15 others and injured 13, after a truck driver went through a stop sign at a remote intersection in Saskatchewan and into the path of the team’s bus.

The Saskatchewan government has said that the province continues to see organ transplant donation registration rates go up.

Get weekly health news

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.

The registry, which started in September 2020, has seen more than 30,000 residents register their intent to donate organs and/or tissues.

“On Green Shirt Day, we honour Logan Boulet and the powerful legacy of organ and tissue donation,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Tuesday on social media.

“Across Saskatchewan, families are choosing to give the gift of life and are bringing hope to others.”

Nicole de Guia, manager of organ donation and transplantation with the Canadian Institute for Health Information, said data from 2024 shows that 3,203 transplants were performed in Canada. Data from 2025 is not yet available.

“We still have quite a bit of demand for these vital surgeries, and there’s still much more of an unmet need,” de Guia said in an interview.

There were 4,044 Canadians on a waiting list for an organ as of Dec. 31, 2024, while 691 people died or were withdrawn from the list.

She said, nationally, there has been an increase in transplant surgeries in the last 10 years.

But data from 2024 shows the first decrease in deceased donors in five years — about six per cent compared to the year before. Living donations saw a smaller decrease in 2024 with 1.7 per cent.

“For the most part, a living donor can only provide a kidney or a part of a liver, so we really rely on deceased donors to be able to supply these vital life-saving surgeries,” she said.

De Guia added that it’s still too soon to tell if the decrease is a trend that will continue or just a fluctuation.

The institute — an independent not-for-profit organization that collects, analyzes and shares data on Canada’s health systems — started a project in 2023 funded by Health Canada for a new data system called CanODT. It’s aimed to modernize organ donation and transplantation reporting across Canada.

De Guia said there’s still a lot of manual data entry in the transplant process and the new system is designed to better support interprovincial organ transfers.

“This is a precious resource and it needs to be very timely to share data about organs that are available and to match them up with those who need them the most,” she said.

The institute does not have data specifically about Green Shirt Day, but de Guia said these kinds of campaigns are important for starting conversations within families about donation.

“It really starts with an individual and their family’s consent to be able to donate an organ,” she said.

“So with campaigns such as Green Shirt Day and others, no doubt it’s making a difference in a number of people’s lives.”

2:04
Logan Boulet effect remains strong after 7 years

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Jeremy Hansen, just days away from becoming the first Canadian astronaut to circle the moon as part of the Artemis II mission, gave the country yet another glimpse into life on the final frontier.

Hansen, along with American astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch, took part in a live question-and-answer session early Sunday from aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft to answer questions submitted by Canadian kids.

The virtual event, the second of its kind, took place about four days into the 10-day lunar flyby mission.

One youth asked how food is prepared and eaten in space, while another wanted Hansen to pick a movie that best reflects what it’s like in space. Hansen responded with 1995’s “Apollo 13” starring Tom Hanks — save for its disastrous chain of events.

“That movie really shows you a lot what it’s like with just three humans trapped in a tiny capsule and surviving in space together,” the 50-year-old from Ontario said. “It’s one of my favourite space movies.”

Ahead of the Q-and-A, NASA announced on social media that the four astronauts were officially “moonbound” and were more than halfway there. The space agency also shared two photos of the moon, and one of the inside of the Orion capsule.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo flights of the 1960s and ’70s. It had been delayed a few times since February due to hydrogen fuel leaks and helium flow problems.

During Sunday’s event, one youth asked how human organs behave in microgravity.

2:31
NASA releases stunning new images by Artemis II from deep space 

Hansen said he doesn’t notice much of a difference, but he can feel the blood shifting from one part of his body to another.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

“I’m sure my face is a lot (more) puffy now because there’s a lot more blood up in my upper regions of my body, because gravity is not constantly pulling it down,” he said.

“I can just sort of feel it in my head … It’s not bad. But it’s just slightly different.”

Koch said when astronauts spend a lot of time in microgravity, organs adapt to the environment. The heart doesn’t work as hard to pump blood to the brain. Due to the loss of gravity, she also said there’s risk of kidney disease.

Hansen was also asked whether the crew sees a crescent-shaped Earth, as those on the ground sometimes see a crescent moon in the night sky.

“The reality is we do,” he said. “We’ve seen a half-Earth, partial crescent Earth, we’ve seen a dark Earth.”

The four-person crew is expected to do a lunar flyby on Day 6 of the mission. They will zip around the moon in their capsule — about the size of a campervan — before coming home.

The Canadian Space Agency says that on arrival at the moon, the crew will spend several hours observing and photographing its surface to help scientists understand the geologic processes that shaped it and the solar system.

At its closest, the moon will be about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length.

Hansen said there’s been a lot of personal give-and-take on this mission. His family, he said, has had to give him some grace and make some sacrifices.

“Sometimes with this job, I can’t be there for them when they would like me to be there,” he said. “There’s a lot of sacrifice from the family, and so they’ve definitely done that for me, and they’ve been my greatest cheerleaders along the way.”

Asked in French what role young people play in the future of space exploration, Hansen said it’s “necessary that the next generation contributes to our future.”

“When there is something that interests you, learn as much as possible and also share this dream, this goal, with others and form a team, and you can do important things for humanity,” he said.

The capsule and its crew are expected to splash down April 10 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

How did the researchers stop “zombie cells” from building up?

What might this mean?

Jenni Gibbons was always drawn to the stars. Now, the Calgary-born astronaut is set to take part in NASA’s Artemis II mission, which will send humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

“So much of our life is enabled by space,” Gibbons said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Gibbons is Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen’s backup. If all goes to plan, she won’t be on the rocket — but she will still perform a critical role in its launch and voyage through space.

NASA has targeted an April 1 launch for Artemis II, with a six-day launch window running through April 6.

The space agency attempted to send the four astronauts from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on a 10-day lunar fly-around in February, but the launch was delayed by hydrogen fuel leaks and helium flow problems.

If there are no issues next week, Hansen, 50, of London, Ont., will serve as the mission specialist during Artemis II and become the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit. He will be joined by veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch.

Gibbons is assigned as the backup astronaut to ensure that Canada keeps its seat on the mission in the unlikely event that Hansen cannot fly, the Canadian Space Agency has said.

While Gibbons has dreamt of travelling to space since childhood, she said she’s close with Hansen and his family and is honoured to play a supporting role in the mission.

“I just want more than anything to see his dream actualized and see him fly in space on a successful mission,” she said.

6:36
Artemis II delayed: What’s grounding NASA’s next moon mission?

As an astronaut understudy, Gibbons has gone through years of the same training as those on the rocket. Ahead of next week’s launch, she must stay prepared and go into quarantine with the other astronauts.

In the days and hours before takeoff, Gibbons will also enter the capsule to ensure it’s ready to take the astronauts up.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

As the rocket circles the moon, Gibbons will serve as a voice link from Earth to space — part of the team coaching Hansen and the other astronauts on key mission objectives.

The team is keenly anticipating takeoff even as it focuses on executing the plan they’ve been working on for years, she said.

“The crew is ready. I’m really proud of the way that they’ve matured and prepared for this mission and the team is ready to support them too,” she said.

It will be a monumental moment for a former Prairies kid whose childhood explorations of the landscape at home made her aware of the limitless possibilities of the universe.

While everyone marvels at the night sky, few become astronauts. Gibbons said she had great role models and mentors growing up — people who showed her that nothing, not even outer space, was beyond her reach.

“I just knew that it was a possibility,” Gibbons said.

Her mom helped plant the seed by taking her to see legendary Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar speak.

She said she’s always been drawn to creative problem-solving and science. Blending those interests led her to engineering — she got a mechanical engineering degree from McGill before completing a PhD at Jesus College in Cambridge.

“When Canada announced they were recruiting astronauts, I just thought back to all of that curiosity and all of that exposure early on,” Gibbons said. “And I thought, ‘How cool would it be to be a part of this?’”

5:15
The science behind the Artemis II mission

She was selected by the Canadian Space Agency in 2017 at the age of 28 — just the third woman to join the ranks of Canadian astronaut recruits — and soon relocated to Houston for training.

Canada’s role in the upcoming moon mission is critical, Gibbons said. The country has many experts in tech fields that support space exploration, such as robotics.

Investing in these groundbreaking technologies pushes Canada’s space expertise forward but also has an economic impact by creating jobs and inspiring innovation, Gibbons said.

Space missions also help Canadians understand their own vast landscape better.

“Space exploration is fundamental and important for the whole world, but especially for Canada because we are such a huge nation, where so many of our natural resources and really the heartbeat of our landscape can only be viewed and taken from outer space,” she said. “So investing in space assets is particularly important for us.”

Gibbons said that, given the grim state of global geopolitics, Artemis II “is one shining example of what you can achieve when you collaborate and co-operate and have a shared mission.”

She said this mission will take humans farther from Earth than anyone has ever gone, and allow the astronauts to see parts of the moon never before seen up close by human eyes.

The team has been working with geologists who want the astronauts’ own descriptions of the colours and textures of the moon’s far side.

“They’re also really interested in the way that those features make us feel as humans and our reaction to them,” she said.

That very human sense of wonder connects the astronauts in space with the people watching on the ground, she said.

“How many people go out in their backyard and look at the moon and spend time staring at the features? Or maybe, if you’re lucky enough to have a telescope or binoculars, you can see a little bit more,” she said.

“It’s just a cool thing to know that the Artemis II crew will be doing the same thing.”

— With files from Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal

PORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Jenkins was driving to work before dawn when a bright green streak beamed across the sky.

The camera on his dashboard captured the moment at 6:06 a.m. Monday while he was in southwestern Washington state about 20 miles (32 km) north of Portland, Oregon. Initially he thought it might be a comet, but then figured it was too close to be one.

“It kind of reminded me of a lightning strike because it was so bright,” he said. “The video doesn’t do justice on how bright and close it seemed.”

What Jenkins saw was a fireball, a particularly bright meteor that can be seen up to 80 miles (129 kilometers) above the Earth, according to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Last week a 7-ton meteor sped across the Ohio sky in a fireball that could be seen from several states away. It broke apart in a thunderous boom that startled residents who feared an explosion.

On Saturday, a meteor traveling 35,000 miles (56,327 km) per hour broke apart north of Houston, according to NASA. The disintegration caused booms heard by some in the area, the agency said, and a resident told local TV news outlet ABC13 that a piece of the meteor crashed through her roof.

Green fireballs like the one Jenkins saw are often due to the presence of magnesium, which emits a bright blue-green light when heated and vaporized in the Earth’s atmosphere, the museum said. Nickel can also contribute to a green color.

Its altitude in the dark early morning sky made it widely visible, said Jim Todd, the museum’s director of space science education.

“It was bright, it was green, it was spectacular,” he said Monday. “One tiny little piece of rock put on such a show this morning.”

With the video and other people reporting sightings, it may be possible to determine the direction the fireball was traveling and whether it landed on the Earth’s surface. In most cases, it’s rare that a fireball makes contact with the Earth, and when it does, it can be hard to locate, Todd said.

“Even if it does survive, it looks like a common everyday rock, and nearly almost impossible to find, unless it hit a house or a street or leaves debris behind,” he said.

As the number of people with cameras on their dashboards and doorbells has grown, so have reports of such sightings, he added.

Jenkins said that while he got his dashcam in case of an accident, it was “cool to catch something like that.”

“I won’t go without a dashcam ever again,” he said. “I need to go buy a lottery ticket now.”

The Toronto Blue Jays locked in their leadership group Monday with extensions for Ross Atkins and John Schneider.

Atkins’ five-year deal runs through 2031, while Schneider’s covers 2028.

The moves follow Toronto’s 94-win season, American League East title and a seven-game World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers last year.

Schneider, 46, has a 303-257 record since taking over as manager in July 2022 and was runner-up for American League manager of the year last season.

He is entering his fourth full season as skipper after the Blue Jays picked up his 2026 option last season.

“Schneids has been, and will continue to be, an exceptional leader and manager in professional baseball because of his unwavering commitment to players,” said Atkins.

Schneider is the 14th manager in franchise history and succeeded Charlie Montoyo in July 2022, helping guide Toronto to a wild-card berth that season.

The Blue Jays were swept in the wild-card round in 2022 by Seattle and again in 2023 by Minnesota before slipping to a 74-win season in 2024.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

Toronto rebounded in 2025, securing the division title on the final day of the regular season and advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1993.

Schneider, a native of Princeton, N.J., has spent more than two decades with the organization after being drafted by Toronto in 2002 and later working his way through the minor-league system.

“I am ecstatic to continue leading the Blue Jays as we work to bring our incredible fans a championship team,” said Schneider. “It’s been a privilege to be part of this organization for nearly 25 years, and the work the Blue Jays continue to do excites me every day.”

Atkins, 52, was hired in December 2015 and is the second-longest tenured general manager in franchise history.

The Blue Jays reached the post-season five times under his leadership, but won playoff games only in 2016 before last year’s run.

Toronto struggled through a rebuild that bottomed out in 2018 and 2019 before returning to contention during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

“Ross has done an outstanding job in building a deep foundation with an accomplished Baseball Operations team, best-in-class resources, and a collaborative culture,” said Mark Shapiro, Toronto’s president and CEO. “I am a strong supporter of stability and continuity, and Ross continues to make us better.”

Shapiro signed a five-year contract extension in December 2025, keeping him with the club through the 2030 season.

Atkins helped secure franchise cornerstone Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, US$500-million extension in April 2025, one of the richest deals in team history.

The Blue Jays added pitchers Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, along with third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, in a series of high-profile moves this off-season.

The club did lose star shortstop Bo Bichette in free agency in January after he signed a three-year, $126-million contract with the New York Mets.

The Blue Jays open their regular season Friday against the Athletics at Rogers Centre.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Natalie Wilkie won Canada’s first gold medal at the Milan Cortina Paralympics on Sunday with a first-place finish in the women’s standing para-biathlon competition.

Wilkie, from Salmon Arm, B.C., finished in 33 minutes 1.8 seconds, more than a half-minute ahead of China’s Zhao Zhiqing (33:33.5). Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova took bronze in 33:37.9.

It’s the fourth career Paralympic gold medal for the Canadian flag-bearer and her ninth Paralympic medal overall. She won silver in the women’s standing sprint on Saturday.

“This is pretty unreal,” Wilkie said. “Silver was pretty awesome yesterday, but the gold today is even better. It all came together today. It’s just a race like any other race, but when you add in the crowds and everything that goes along with the Paralympic Games, it all just feels like such a bigger event.

“But I do feel like I’ve had enough exposure at events like this that I was able to still lock in.”

Also Sunday, Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., claimed silver in the men’s race for his 13th career Paralympic medal. China’s Jiayun Cai won gold and Germany’s Marco Maier earned bronze.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

“Hearing the split halfway through the race that I was only in 10th place, that’s not something I’m used to,” Arendz said. “But it’s also something I can go to the back pocket and pull out, knowing I’ve been here before and using that experience to just keep pushing.

“I know I can outski a lot of the guys over the distance and keep my head in the game on the range, and that’s what really helped.”

Tyler Turner of Campbell River, B.C., earned bronze in the men’s SB-LL1 snowboard cross as Canada’s medal total rose to six (1-3-2).

Turner, who won gold four years ago, got tangled up with Japanese rider Junta Kosuda in the final. Turner crossed the line fourth, but a post-race review determined Turner should be awarded the bronze.

“The run is going to weigh heavily on me for a while but that’s racing,” Turner said. “We talk about it all the time: the chaos, the crashes, everything. Unfortunately sometimes you have to be a part of it and today I was. I’m proud to still have taken a medal.”

In wheelchair curling, Mark Ideson’s squad improved to 3-0 with a pair of victories. Canada scored three in the eighth end for a 5-4 victory over Great Britain before dumping Norway 9-2 later in the day.

The Canadian Paralympic Committee also confirmed that para-alpine skier Mollie Jepsen of West Vancouver, B.C., would no longer compete at the Games due to a knee injury.

The six-time Paralympic medallist was able to finish the women’s downhill standing competition on Saturday despite the leg issue.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the team around me and all the support that I received to get back here,” said Jepsen. “And beyond that, being part of such an elite group that helped me return to the start gate with confidence in the downhill was something really special.”

“I’m excited to cheer on team Canada from the stands and watch my teammates continue to compete out there,” she said.

Competition continues through March 15.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press